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BRITAIN^S ONLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE AMSTRAD CPC 464, 664 AND 61 28 



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MASTERGAME 



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l^QBUST^PLAYING GUIDE 

you need to know about this R 

PLUS 

GAME REVfEWS • PJlGftlW • PAGES OF CHEAT MODE 

ABSOLUTE BEGINNIBS • BOOTING UP CP M 

/ EDUCATtONAL SOFTWARE • NEWS 

VffWS • SPEClAi OFFERS • AND MUCH MORE 





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QAMESFORTHE 
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IT MUST DE CHRISTMAS 




Imagine Software (1984) Limited. 6 CentraJ^^^^^^ M^r^rhf^<t>^rM7 5NS Telephone: 061 -834 3939TeleK-'S69977 






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AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 



FRONT END 



EOlTOItlAL • NEWS • LETTERS 

5ED-L[NES... 5UGARMAN 

Hew foces at the Old Bam. 

6 REACTION 

Pour pages that you the F&ad«r wfole. 

14AM$CENE 

Finger on Arnold's pulse, mcluding report on the 

Amstrad Show in London. 



DrcrTIZING SPECIAL 



MOUTH, EYES AND EARS FOR ARNOLD 

22 SPEECH! 

No hardware -just Superior Software. You type, your 
CPC spoaks. 



24 viDr 

Plug a TV camera into Amotd: (he video digitizer from 
Koini>o, 




^! 



23 A DAY IN THE LIFE 

How one of the KombE> teain uaes Ma Amjitrad: schoolboy 
Keith Wilson, who alao converted Gz^en Boiei. 

26 SOUND DIGITtZER 

An amaemg TYPE-IN: put sound Erom an. ordinary 
cassetie into your compuier'a memory. 

35 TARZAN COMPETITION 

Be & hi-tech Ape-man! Digitize hia yell and win the 

Martech game. 



SERIOUS SIDE 



REVIEWS • AKTICLES • PROFILES 

41 SERIOUS SOFTWARE SHORTS 

Draw in 3-Dl Amor's Model l/iuveree. Rotate hem Proteus. 
Book: Advanced Amstrad Basic. 

28 TYPE-INS 

Thr«« pa^es of ihoi\ type-ins - from r«ad«i8, 

46 ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS - Part 8 

Whafs WHILE- WEND? Neater thaji FOR-MEXT? Wilton's 

word to Basic beginnera. 

48 BOOTING CP/M - Part 6 

Wg tmsh off PtP and look at other utilities on your aygtom 
disk, 

34 PROBLEM ATTIC & HOT TIPS 

Hints on cassette-loading problems. 



53 BACK TO SCHOOL 

A look this mottth at progs for primary-school lads. 



ACTION & ADVENTURE 



OVER IS GAMES • MAP* • TMEP(LGfl(« 

55 ACT/ON TEST STARTS HBREf 
Tout Top Ten Chan plus a FULL LIST of the gamea 
reviewsd in the neit 20 ptget - yet, 20 pagea this mottthl 
These are jusi the Raves... 

56LfGHTFORCE 

A winooth-ACJoUin^ fast-actuui shoot-em-iip from FTL, 



S8 DRU»D 

Explore an arcane arcade from Ptj^ird in this month's 
Maieierganie. 




66 TRAPDOOR 

Be the BerV from the new TV sezies for Idds - fall through 
the Ei^>Or laughing. 

72TRAILBLAZER 

Another bouncing-ball beauty from Ctemlin. 

87 PILGRIM'S PAGES 

The Cowled Cn^sdei Die* m ffom Wioboi with the latent 
ix\ the world of adventurea. 

94 DOOMDARK'S REVENGE: MAP 

Our megamap of the 6,000-io elation epic. 

98 CHEAT MODE 

More of your wonderful game-busdng ploys. 



:i|€6 THRUST: MAP 

Colour playing guide to the fiendish Firebird cheapie. 




i 



T08 MAIL-ORDER 

From your armchair, order software and save yourself 
pounds. 

112 ACTION FORM 

The all-in-one Action Form for your interaction. 



ULTIMATE ACTION 
IN THE THIRD DIMENSION! 




F. Store of rhe on OD, 16 cofour groph ics^^^ 
pl^ Unique orogrGmmabie robots WHlHKB 
ifSuf M\STRAD CPC - £6.95 (rope) £14.95 (disc) 
I Wrslonsfof other micros coming soon ... 




ED-LINES 









ADVERTISEMENTS 

Mik« CuzoU, Richiird Stanimeis 

Eardley Hqiisc 

182 Cutiipden Kill Rgad 

London WB 7AS 

PhOh^: 01-22! 3S9E 



New faces at the Old Bam 

FuJture Publishing will aootv have to raise a new barn if Qua 
population explosion psrsists. AmsHAd Action Gtarted 16 
montlis ago with a staff of three. Today IB people produce three 
magazines here. 

Spealring of rising rapidly, hasn'l your new editor? Tin Jim 
Nagel, who joined two months ago as sub, and have now takqn 
over the chAir vacated hy Mstt Nicholson. Matt is still here -he 'a 
m the next stall editing the new PC Plus. He gets his own stapler 
this month, and won" t just be a supplement inside SOOO Plus, 

Riehaxd Montelro comos lo AA after losing his A-levels to 
AiTiold. He IS a\n new Technical ediiof. having gained hi$ 
expertise when he should have been preparing for exams. We 
were so impressed with Eiehard'e sound digitiaier when he 
came for interview (hat it's our cover-feature type-in. And giiesa 
who's our coverboy? Talk about fast fame. 

Andy WiJion has left Eomerton for the metropolis to get his 
name in lights; you "11 e«e it in the Amgtrad section of Micronet. 
He's a techmcal Writer there- This is one reason our Prestel 
mailbox - the numlxir is on this page - is getting more use now. 
Andy's articles for Basic beginnerB wiU continue to appear in 
AA for the next month or two. 

Upstairs at the Old Barn, Klxn Bale has joinad the art team. 
She's a graduate of PlymouEh Poly and formerly worked 
fieelanoe from homa in Sherborne while looking after a baby. 

Now fattier freelances and teiid* tWO-year-oId Timmy. Kim 
replaces Oeor^^ Marphy, who departed (he drawingboaxd for 
the blight hghts of Bristol. 




A*t 



Who was on show? 

Our siand ai the Amstrad Show 
last month (sec reporl in 
Amscene) was ofton overcrow- 
ded with avid readers of 
Amstrsd Action. It was a pica- 
sure me&tlng you all, and I'm 
sorry (here vras not enough time 
to chat to everyone. Well, we 
have discovered our leaders 
come in aU sizes, e^apea and 
ages - and t suppose you dia- 
covered the same about us! 

Game to help? 

Am^//ad Action is loolong for an 
assistant games reviewer. The 
hght peison must Uve near 
enough to Somenon to be able 
10 call in &t the oftice ai leasr 
onca m we«k, and must be able 
to write to the exacting stan- 
dards of AA English - remmier- 
ation accordingly. If you think 
you fill the bill, send ib.^ editor 
two sample gatine reviews, 

Checii^ yourself 

And dep.ed. Bob Wade asks 
Edlinea to remind you yet again 
that Cheat Mode cannot answer 
individual la tiers asking for 
help with games - even il they 
bribe him with a stamped envel- 
opo begging a reply. We 
wouldn't want to spoU the fun 
for you, noT would we have 
enough month left to make yom 
megH-mag. 



This month' 9 cover is a 
magic by Trevor and team, 
don't you (hirtk? It was done by 
fiisl photogiaphiftg Richard 
with an ordLnary camera. They 
put the resultrng colour transpa- 
rency onto a lightbox and focus- 
acd a video camera on it. Thus 
two identical images were pjo> 
duced, one analogue and one 
digital. Wesseic, oui colour 
originators, then blended one 
into the other lor the final result 
you see up from. 

We'd like lo thank Bnlish 
Telecom at Bristol for loaning us 
Itio Auralile headset you see - 
also Thom-EMl of Wells for ano- 
ther one you don't> And Linnet 
Photographic and Technical 
Services Lid (Midas Audio- 
Visual) of Langpoiti Someisel, 
for Ihe video camera thai did 
the seelng. 



Dtgttol conju''-ng on th« cover 

bit of 




JLmstrad Actioit 

Fatnte Publishing liitiited 

The Old Bam 

Brunei Precinct 

Somerton, Somersat 

TAll 5 AH 

Phone: (045^)7401! 

PresteVMicronet mailbox: 045B740U 

Coleui^ OriglELhIian: Weneic FepiwiiirAwu, 3SSr WbILe Koad, Bitxtol SS4 OOL 

FriBllD j; Red-mood Web Oj£iel, YvDiaana War, "^itrvibhdge: , WAtn. 
J OiililbDlioii: Se^mouc Pita*. 334 BjiKlon Kia«d. LctitiDr, SWI TAC 

(Dwtriliwajm 4 *ilb«enp<iMyi kn th*N*!h*tl*ji«))(^ tNFO DATA COMPUTEBS, 
Poatbua ST. SeOOJUt Ain«r«t04l. Tiatiia: 0133-630167 Retail piico: H£1 7.^] 



Vera Cnuz winners 

Five readers have won copies 
of the whodunnit game from In- 
fogram'as as prizes in our Sop- 
tembar competition. 

They are P Dov/ling of 
Maidenhead, Andrew Gray of 
Manchester, Paul Sweeiman of 
New Maiden, Arthur Maiquez of 
Leeds and PA lodgers of Ro- 
therhaiR. Another long list of 
lunners-up will receive £3 
vouchers. 



<i&rwB«FiiiiBiM»gtiwii»ats« AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 S 




The Old Bern's postttag i$ bmrsting agatn rhrs monfh. 
Thanks for the effort you put into Ihesa epistles - weVe 
only sorry we can't print more. Thanks too for your 
comments on Ihe mag and suggestions for improve- 
ment: you might be surprised next month to see some 
of your ideas in print even tf your letter doesn't appear 
here. 

Keep *em coming - and remember, brief Is best. 



Brummies and soldiers 

form Amstrad groups 

1 am in the process of forming a 
uss'ra club in Biinunghara. 
CouJd those inta rented pleasa 
write to me? We hope we won't 
have to charge anything to join. 
We a]«o hops to have access to 
ft uuivccsiiy which ae&s 61,233. 
JehaB Woods 
S4 teckwood Rc»sd 
?fcn-thfiMld, BimlnghaiTL 
B31 IQD 

I wotidei it I Tnight use your 
pages to let Armed Forces 
ArTLStrad us«ra Icnow gf the 
fQfmation of the Services 
AitLditiad Society. Reoe^it ir- 
seardi shows (here axe well 
aver 5,000 privat-eiy owned 
Amstrada iti UEe in the three 
services, and I suspccl the fi- 
gure couid be nearer 25.000. 
such IS the success of th«o out- 
standing Ftiachines. 

Thi: Services Amstrad 
Society will bring together all 
thie uaera sud provide a forum 
for the ^^cch^nge of ideAS, help 
witb problems, and a united 
T(»ic:« to deal with softwre 
houses and our own masters. 
Any serviceman requiring fur- 
ther details of the society shouM 
write to mc enclosing an sae, 
The Services Amstiad Society i? 
being run by aervicemen, for 
serwicoiuen, 

CMJoiatfLt-CoO 
Services Amstrad Socielr 
Iieioc Tit Centte, Sturry Road 
Canterbury, K«nt 
CTl IHS 



Why not small ad*? 

I have 8ub3s;ribed to AA aitice 
jsi^UB 1 snd I thinJt it's pure 
genius. Gould I make one small 
helpful suggestion - ilwt you 

6 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 19S6 



reserve one or two page« per 
month (or s. s<:lcchoii o( readers' 
«dvertisenients. Fox a small 
charge (or if you're really gen- 
eroiiB, free) readers could ad- 
vartise diings they want to swap 
or sell 

A lot ot people can't afford t2Q0 
foi a priniex or £100 fo; a disk 
drive, For example E would be 
willing to swap 10 lo IS £10 AA- 
Rave games - .original, un- 
copi^d - for s CPC 464 printex 
or disk dnvG. 
Peter Day 
a Drummoad Road 
Birmjagham, B9 SX| 

Ai ti\e momsat, Pet^r. wc 
hav67\ 't got the staff to cops with 
ihe sdimin it weald entail. Also, 
smaU sds foi swapping sOitWATS 
op^n vp temptation for UlegA} 
copying'. Like other Jtiagazines, 
we Krant to avoid that. As tor 
I haidware, we're pnnting your 
a(tdf999 ihia time. 



3 chleRs for tape 

Yds, you have got a great mag, 







bul so many people must have 
loid you ilmi you're going to get 
big-headed if you're not carelul 

Why is everyone so ama- 
oua to 0ve the poor old cassette 
the shove? The hardware is 
ohoapoE than a disk drive, a 
cassette is cheaper than a disk, 
and moat of us lesser mortals 
can't alTord the prices. Maybe 
you could do a censue to find 
oui how many of your readers 
do own disk drives, 

And csn anyone come up 
with a poke to tur^ that blasted 
music off in EUte? 
Alex Gough 
Hasilugs, E Sussex 

We make loguiitr use of a Har-' 
vey Headbartger hat to kocp qvf 
sff^s Iroitl 0Ver-expBj}ding - 
though thsy have good cause. 
CsssottGS sxo Blow and unr^ll- 
shle> that '^ why, Wa agree, they 
ATS cheap. Bttt the price of disk 
drives is coming cfoK'n ail the 
dme. 

Uyoa csji'i beaz th& music, 
iv/iy don 't you Just uso this vol- 
uiuB cotitrol? 



Loader iainant 

I }om the multitude of people 
complaining about foreign 
loader!- I ajTi not too bothered 
about iiead«rles« loaders 
because on my system (€128 
and tape-recorder} tnoal head- 
erleas programs work. But the 
Firobird loaders are terrible. I 
have not ye( got one of them to 
worlt. I have Thxast, H^r^ey 
Headhangei axvd Spiksy Jisrold, 
and you can't buy these 
progiamfi an disk, It is #11 rtght 
if you have a built-m tape but ii 
not It's hell. 

J know they've got to keep 
ahead of the pirate, but does it 
have to be at the expense of us? 
Could you please say in youi 
reviews if thaee loaders cau^e 
problems on a SI 2B or 6S4? 
JtnthfiBf Beck 
SDuth Humberalde 

Jlie problem Mes m'th &e azim- 
nth adjusaneiti an your tap&d- 
eck. Firebird's ioadci Is parti- 
cul^iy iinicky- See this month's 
Problam Attic, page 34. 



Whodunnit? 

I have seen the Fotirth Protocol 
game reviewed <October AA) 
and I like the idea of h. But I 
have read the book and I won- 
der ^ will the characters whod- 
unnit in the book be the same in 
thei game? In other words, will I 
know who it is immediately? 
Axnyaa Stapbaai 
ramJtuti, 5ui3«y 

To bo hottest, wi> don't know 
because none of US httve rajef 
the book, Bsit even if you iiavc, 
you will still find the game ^ 
chsUenge- 



Leaderbaardiess 

What news ol the to-be-released 
Ijeadei-board for Arnciid? US 
Gold was rather noncoramital at 
the PCW Show, despite the 
flashy stand. The Amstrad ver- 
sion Wasn't evaiPi on the 
pricehsl. 
Feter Newman 
Co. Tyrone 

SriSt waiting tor if, stiti vrorking 
on it. A tschnical hitch, 
appsrently. 



It*$ even simpler 

Ailer waiting ages to get the 
disk version of Viper'sJ^r- 
Lesgue Soccer U from you 
P^ecause d delays at the soft- 
ware house) ii fina,lly arrived. 
However, there was a seilous 
problem: the 'Save game' op- 
tion doea not function. I have 
tided all ways - so have others ~ 
but it is no good. A? you prob- 



Penpals, please 

^ Michael Meliin, 4 Camden 
St, ItTelson, LadCt, BBS OBL. 
^ Paul Mackenzie, 39 Mil- 
lerasneeb Ave, Lien^ie, Scot- 
land, GE6 SHP. 

1^ Robert White, 1 Sunnybank 
St, Ossetl, Wakefield, W 
Yorks, Wr5 8PE, is 14 and has a 

eiaa. 

► Cllris Bdrbon, Caietakera 
Rouse, Whitstable CJ Scbool, 
Oxford St, Whitstable, Kent, 
CT5 2DB. IS IS and has a 464 
v/ith Ughtpcn. 

k Jonatban Eland, 3 SHaanaiKl 
Well Drive, Horbnry, 

Wakefield, W Yorks, WF4 GBN 
wanls lo oiganize 'tho country's . 
bttestandgieatest penpal club'. ' 

► Wayne Col, 111 Saxon Dr, 
London, W3 ONY (01993 SSSl)' 
would love to know Arnold 
owners in the EaUng-Acton 




-Iff^ 




REACTION 



ahly realise , unJcsa you keep 
the computer on for weska, the 
game is much I^a enjoyable foi 
me, lei alone the kids - impa- 
satble lo fuush- 
Jenny R&D dlea 
Waningtoa, Ctaetliir* 

Th9 piei}!eni in the disk rersiott 
ciEoccQi U IS an quot In Iho 
iastmctions, sccarding^ to i 
Vipet man. Don 't Insert s blank 
dusk' Of 'lh9 saved-game diaJr', 
Simply use the; same disk the 
proqram i$ an. 

Pre-Arnold peruser 

! am veiy new to the vvonderfiil 
world of the Arnold' In fact [ 
haven't even bought it yet. I am 
gomg to buy the 6123 in a 
couple of motnths. and already 1 
am sreading your great 
magazine. 

When are you going to do a 
review on the Giaphics Adven- 
fuxe Creator PJas? 1 think this 
might be 1h« flrsl prograiti [ 
buy. 

A Euggeetion: Why don't 
you devQit; a page of the mag 
foi Amold^ViS to 'n^rite in ss\4 
is)f. other {i9«rs fot tmw-anted 
games etc, and also advertise 
[heir unwanted software and 
hardware? Sonie users may 
want 10 sell some games or 
eiren swap them. 
Mane j Mistry 
L«icesrtef 

We Ipat foiwixd to pabJishing 
your typg-ins iith^n you fmaliy 
do gel your machins! Watch out 
for the Pilgrim's cojniaents on 




^JUwe^t? 






GAC-. He looked at the 
on0iisl version in JanuAry. As 
toT small-sds, s&& the Jtext 
letter. 

(Apologias, by the way, MM. ii 
w&'ve misspelt year nAme. Jfo 
hassles trading she rest otyour 
very a^it hitxdwrMng. but yaai 
sigiatturB stymied us.) 



Remind me 

Why cannot some expert pro- 
duce n list of memory cost foi 
each 6^38 conunand as was 
done for the Spectrum? Oi am I 
ihe only person with a S123 who 
did not p&Y the inflated price 
just lo play games? 
dive South ee 
Baiingstoke, Hantc 

Two books reviewed in the 
Noveiab&c: issue contaiR jtist the 
sort of able you 're ait&r. 



Getting back up 

I srx once again annoyed to find 
'Booting CP/M' and 'Absolute 
Eog««icJ5' plus the music ait- 
icles (October) piinied baek-to- 
back. This fouls up nty system of 
taking out these articles for re- 
ference: they can't be sep- 
arated. Why not alter the layout 
to split them by a page of ada, as 
nvoffl other magB dO? 

This Is the only real mo^tr; \ 
hove about yotir mag^ which 
more than cov-era -everything an 
Amatrad owner needs. Con- 
grats on your new mag 3006 
Plus, which 1 ordered this 
morrting, 
John Wallyf ork 
Warrington, CheslliK 

Tovr new ed sctuAllj tried to 
please you this issiie^ keeping 
AB and CPM separate. But then 
along came eight more Ijist- 
minute jcfage* and an unbeliev- 
able repeat performance oi jug- 
gling colour pages, ads, se- 
quence, Jaft va right. John, VU 
send yoa 3p to photocopy the 
hsckofone p^g^- 



Carve name in stone 

Isn't ii amazing how dense you 
can be if you reaUy try? J P 
Eldridge wrote to you (October) 
complwniitg aJjowt your review 
of Nuciear Heist and aaked you 
Eo print the author's tta»ie in a 
review. You repMed thai it's 
often diflicull to tell who wrote a 
gome. Mr E was writing to tell 
you who wrote (he game; he 
did. What he want» ia the name 
of the author of Gve review so he 
knows whose legs to bieak. 
The review se^amdd fair enough 
to me. 

Can we eee a oompreliensive 
collation of EUte tip9? Those of 
us who waited for the disk ver- 



Invid'ble bowl 

Could you pleajse teU me when 
Superbowl wUl be released? 
The game haa been advertised 
smcc Dcconxber and moat rec- 
ently in the adven 'Heroes and 
VlUaiiis' along with Itamtyo, 0st- 
maji and V. which are all avail- 
able It haK been oul for some 
time on the Spcdnati and Com- 
nwdore, and Ihe TWo-player 
game is excellent. It's a ahame 
that -s good software house lets 
consumers down by not releas- 
ing the gB3i3e» aidverlised tsU six 
months to a year later, I'm thin- 
kang of Street Hawk and Kiught 
Rsdfir. 

Dalrid and Miehaei Pidduok 
Bnadttaix*, Sent 

A spokssttian at Ocean said the 
iS)aretrsion hsd to be sban- 




doned J?ecause oi aaloresees 
snd tmsunnoontsble pro- 
granuning difficulties. You^rt* 
right about 'teaser' advertising; 
you csn belieye it's out when 
you read OUT review. We t^ke 
Ocean and all the others with a 
grain of salt. 



sion have just completed the 

first mission, are dangerous and 
are wondering how the Eecond 
mission siarts. I note that ano- 
ther nn^g &at still runs high- 
scores has claims for hundreds 
of (hous^Jids of crodils. Is there 
any point pursuing cash oi 
trying to keep e clean record? I 
thought the rating depended 
purely on ihia. 
D J Edvrardi 
Leeds 

Some programmers might not 
want their nMmes curved on AA 
gSavestanes, But in lutaie we'li 
include an auUior's name in s 
review if it's printed on the 
package (as Jone Paul's was. 
spelt like Efsflf, now thsi w^ 
look). In moet esses nowsiddys, 
however, there is no one name. 
Often it's s team rather than an 
individual. Frega0iitly Ajtistrad 
games are conversions from 
other machines: the original 
author has never touched an 
Anxsir^d. and th^ t^opvertiiig 
programiTter h^s never had an 
original thought 

Pets for sale 

We have bought a new big 
memory-fast Ametrad, and the 
difference is remarkable for our 
vast range of bridge administr- 
ation programa. Anyone want a 
Commodore set of working kil? 
Ifo reasonable offer refused for 
the hardware and extensive 
software! Comrnodore 303Z with 
double disk drive and tiaclor 
printer, 4032 with single drive 
and printer - £730 the lot. 
Bernard Brighten 
Sheffield Bridge Club 
7 Thornsett Road 

Wslcome to Ametrad Action. 
Bernard, Something telis me, 
though, you're advertising in 

the wrong mag. 



Points for 

Re-actors: 

► PRWr your name clearly 
if you wint us to speil it right. 
YoM, should *ee some of the 
signatures we gel! 
^ A telephone nureibet- 
might be u£eful in case wc 
need to check sorr.elliiing 
before piinimg your ictter. 
¥■ Pit ase don't expe ct irid;v- 
idual replies, espedaliy on 
games problenia v.'e get 
jast too many letters and 
vjQuid havfi no timsi left to 

_put_aut your favourite mega- 
mag. 

►■ If you have points for 
various dRparlments [eg. Pil- 
grim, Type-ins. Subscrip- 
tions, Mail-order) please 
writ^ them them on afi-prirrite 
ahe«t,'j of paper. Some mem- 
bers of the AA leatri are free- 
range - they are not con- 
futed to stalls in the Old Barn. 
So if you expect ono bit ol 
p,!3pfir lo be shared round. 

■ I'm afraid yoti multiply the 
diances oi it getting lost. 
Make auro your ramfi Am\ 
jddresfi ii^ on each, but you 
c^n post Uieiti iill in one 
envelope. 



Confounded comms 

1 am impreaged by your 'Day in 
the Life' (November) and note 
one glaring omifiaion from youf 
magazine. You menlion your 
communf^ationa et^iuipment and 
its problems. However, despite 
scanning my past issues, t can- 
not delect one single word or 
article on the subject of conuns, 
With the widening range of 
modems and the software to run 
them,, it becomes more nece- 
ssary to the Amstrad usicr to 
ajC^fuire more knowledge about 
this means of talking to each 
other. 

[ use a modem because 1 
am disabled. It beats CB radio 




► 



AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 T 



RE-ACTION 




any day, d'espite Hie telephone 
bills. Actually, it coal3 eibout 50 
pence per houi in the evenioig. 
That's rot so bad «vhen you 
conaidet yom cmhi talk with 
people adl i>ver the country and 
even the woild. You can get 
free programs and even inoie 
games. 

li I could Gnd your mailbox 
number printed in the tnagaziiie 
I cMuld have aeni this to you 
electronically instead of using 
the poEF offica. So how about a 
requlajr spot? 
Gil Matthews 
Rachester, Kent 

You'!} now notice car PrSsi^J 
mSiiihQX numit^i on ihe Edhnes 
pAg&. Bat via it you wouldn't 
have got this /efter into piini, 
because Asvsn't yet bssn able 
to get text from thezc into ovr 
WQrdpipcessox without iitQrc 
work thA/} it's iPOfift. Bat slay 
tuned: we're prsctisin^. 

Cdpiured by oltens 

With Alien3: iha computer game 
Qn (he horizon , people are giv- 
ing second Opiitupn^ on the first 
game Alieit. 1 have many very 
g'ood gamoa in my colieclion, 
iticludiiiig MaispoTt and 
Herbert's Dtmuny Run, bat no- 
thing gets my blood going hke 
pUying A^en. People disliked il 
because it Wiisn't an arcade 
game or an adventure, il do&sn't 
even involve much strategy - 
just do whatever is necessary to 
kill the blasted ihiitg} Sut what it 
does involve is suspense and 
tensidh, Mter playing it 1 am a 
nail-lea® nervous wreck ready 
tp be strapped int^ my bed for 
(he night. It is tha best buy 1 
evei made iot a micro: 2X31, 
Dragon or CPC, 

Although the film Aliens 
Wasn't a9 good as the firet an&, 
the computer game could be a 
nail-biter of epic proportiojis. [ 
hope that Electric Dreams is up 
to the task. Meanwhile t tfaanl; 
Argii3 Press and look forward to 
saving lovely Riploy from 
hordes of double -jaw3! 
Sebastiaji Jlstan 
Landon WZ 

Ah Action taskfbrce is blasting 
off to W2 to rescve Setsston 
irom cJte aliene forditg hiia to 
wfrite this, 

Abctndon&d 

Aberdonian 

tt is a constant disappointment 
that I can't get any o£ the current 
software you review, rm not just 
complaining about Aberdean, 
but also Glasgow and 
Edinburgh, both cities that! visit 
on 3 fairly regular basis for my 
work- 

All [he software advertise' 
menta are for companies in the 



Midlands and Ihe South of En- 
gland. It's just not possible to 
travel 3C0 to 500 milea south to 
view a new software program, 
including games. 
Could your magazirvQ help out 
on this? Do a survey of ^opa in 
Scotland and the North Ot En- 
gland and compare it wilh the 
Midlands and the South. 
WiUtam Snell 
Aberdeen 

This is surprising, in view ot this 
tnoatli s npfth^-thc-border 
cover feattir0. And if you feel 
far away, fust look st tftie a&ct 
ietler 




8 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER iQSfi 



' I Keep Ti-lrrJltjM& IT^ Jt^-^T 
f>^ti AW&HiTtrtFve- &i*M6 oti 

Kiwi kudos 

Wowf What a tassgl It's only the 
third issue Tve received, and 
I'm hooked. I've stopped my 
ACUs so I can get the Amstrad 
mag. 

But now the sad part. In New 
Zealand ii costs the equivalent 
of £3! It lakes three months to 
receive an issue [on the new- 
satands]. By the time st gets here 
any competitions have boon en- 
toredj awarded and forgotten. 
We mias out on any freebies. 
(Have you a spare copy of 
Covensflt going begging?) And 
finaJly, there's only a I'in-2 
chance of picking up an i$$ue- 

Mo3t of these cannot be 
helped by AA, but you could 
make overseas competitions 
where vj^e have four or five 
months leeway. 
Sltane Morgan 
Auckland 

A copy o/Covenant is art its way 
down under. Shane. Aifd a copy 
of this issue Ait-iti^il so you 
ivon't itiisB s&eiisg your name in 
it- Sug us again in a fsw jjt^nlhs' 
time about your competition 
idea; it has merit. 




Tdke a butcher's 

Beef up the magazine I In the la$t 
stK issues Ihe re has beeti a gert- 
eial decline m the nunvber of 
pages. Do something about it. 
Jnlian Cater 
London SW14 

Aye, Aye, sir! Editor report 
there are 11$ pages this issue. 

Part of the reason foi drop 
in psge count tivo and throe 
months ago wi$ ihe departure 
of Joyce to her own iitl^, 8000 
Plus, Now. even though 
Amstrad Action is devoted ox- 
ciusively to Arnold, only issue 7 
Out-b^efed the one in your 
me^ihpdtks. sir, 

Hafipy reader 

offers goodies 

When 1 (Ltsi got my G12S I took a 
quick glance at the 7-niillLon- 
page manual. I quickly found 
AA and read it instead. My €123 
no longer seemed like a UFO - 
more than 1 can say for the two 
other computers (Texas Instru- 
ments and Sinclair Spectrum) ] 
had before. 1 hope you keep up 
the brill work- 
To show my gratitude, any 
reader wanting a poster and 
wradow'sncker or two (free!) 
from various software houses 
should write me. the day I le- 
ceive a large self-add resssd 
stamped envelope is the day T 
will send the posiexs dE(. 

RjeaderB in the northwest of 
England will know me as Soft- 
Byte Enterprises {as seen on 
Granada Reports). 
Colin Rickwoodi (age 15) 
JS9 Skipion Roa4 
Colne, Lanes. 
BBS ONY 

No sleep on Mars 

After drawing a large map and 
spending a lot of time blasting 
sept warrtoiTE, t am stuck on 
Marsport. Many of the new pro- 
blem areas that [ have found are 
proving too much lor my single 
brain cell. I wonder if you or 
any of your readers could 
please tell me how to enter the 
chemists, plant room, hothouse, 
or how to enter (safely) the dan- 
ger rooms wher* sonic j^ooms 
and radiation bombfi are acti- 
vated. 1 wcufd bo delighted if 
someone had the solutions to 
these problems because I've 
been losing sleep not knowing 
the answers , 
Matthew Holley 
fiS I^Qsdowna L«ne 
Londan SEI flTN 

Better btew moro black coffee, 
Matthew: you won't get the so-^ 
iutiane from us. If wc snswer&d 
all tho letters we get sbout 
9'ajned, we would spoil the fun 
ibr other readers, not to men- 
tion have no month lefi to ivrite a 



megamag. Buf your situation 
sounds so serious we are print- 
ing yoar address for a possible 
pen-pal to rescue you. 

If the name f Tits 

I was looking through the games 
at my local computer shop, 
Splitting Images was ^.^5 ^nd 
the same game under the tide 
Bplif Personiiiiies was £3.9S. Do 
we pay £3 foi a ditferent cass- 
ette cover? 

Can any mad idjot seU me 
AA i6£ues 1, 2 and 3? If anybody 
writer:, s^ate how much I have to 
pay. 

Michael Mellin 
4 Camden Street 
N^lsorij Lanci. 
BBdOBL 

Domark had tO' vtrithdraw Sptitl- 
ing Images because it raised L 
with the TV puppets. The game 
WAS re-issiied Kith the revised 
title Recommended ratail price 
eiihej way was £& (less the ob- 
ligatory poh}, so if you sswitfor 
£6 your local retailer was offer- 
ing d bargain. 

The Old Barn still has back 
issues of AA J in stock, bat 
we're now out of issues 1 and 2. 

Questions in Eire 



"Cloaking device* m 
tip (Cheat Mode. 



What IS a 
the Elite 
AAIl)? 

What Is the meaning of 81 */» 
for J^ck ths Nipp&T? I would buy 
it right now eiccept for your 
rating. It's original, funny, witty, 
andyeiei%. 

Re-Action is slowly bat 
surely shrinking. Please stop. If 
flus condnuea, we'll be able to 
Eay nothing. 

To software marketing 
people: give Ireland a break I 1 
live near the towns o* Mitchel- 
stown and Fermoy. I went into 
two sihops selling software; 
'Sorry, we don't stock Amstrad 
software.' We have 1o uavel 32 
miles lo Cork to get overpriced 
software at rip-off prices. One 
Irish pound is worth SOp ster- 
ling, and VAT here is 3B%. 

And to mail-order advert- 
isers: 'Europe 70p for post and 
packing' doesn't mean much to 
Irish users. Does TIE mean Great 
Britain or the British Isles as a 
whole? 

Mark DowUng 
Castlemairtyr, Co, Cork 

The cloaking device is some- 
thing you can pick up from a 
syjep/aj mission in Elite, to make 
your 3Mp in visible. 

At 31 % the kiddie psycho^ 
path got en AA i?av«J. What 
more do you want? 

If anything Se~Action will 
be growing iit future. We're 
even printtrig your letter, Mark 
(albeit somewhat shTuaken -but 
you did rather blarney on). 

If you can't persuade your 



Ii 



■tEdr Ail 
-rue M*f 




Kat Trap is the winner of the "Crash Magazine" 

'Genesis' competition. This game was selected out 

of 4000 entries and has been programmed by the 

top rated Design Design team, (need we say more). 




Spectrum 48/1 28 
AmstradCPC 



Programmed by 



£8.95 



STREETWfSE SOFTWARE IS A DOMARK LTD LABEL 
204 WORPLE ROAD, SWaO, LONDON 01-947 ^m& 




An Amstra 



^ 



heard It before. 



Introducing Musif Mflchine'The incredibiif new add-ud 
thflt transriirms ihe Amslrad inlu q powerful music comiiuten 

^ host ur exciting musical Tealures makes Music Machine 
iN mast camplet«i Amslrad music package ever cr€ali<d. 

There's sound sampling, the latest hmi- 
word m rlpctrunJc mu^k that lets you record end 
\^hy any natural siiund at dirrorrnl pitches. (Use: the m^tcrophone 
t(j pick up anything from a whi'itlp In a iiarkini^ doii^). 




Eighl 'voices' created enttnely by Music Machine Includ 
tng drums, piano and synthesiser- edit them, or creale new on e> 
A puwerful drum sectinn with real sounds and a rhythm cdtlur 
And for huddin^ composira, powerful professional 
features WW. note and tune editing^ playable oilher frn 
he Amstratl itsellnra music keylioord. 

Enthusiasts will appreiiHle the aliility la link with nlh^;' 
instruments via MIDI [the professional mm'it interface) an 



I 




4 



'*J 






r . 





prfects like reverb and echo. 

Nun-musickiis will find the h^t moiiu driven graphk'ji 
allaw sounds la lie irealed and songs DoiTipgsed in minutes. 

While everyone will appreciate the breaklhrough price 
of just £49,95jindudmgan illiistmtpri user «itidt!, micmphone, 
headphones socket and demonstration recnrding, 

A eomplete AmstFitd music system ir^m arnund £50? 

Something eise we're sure you've never heard hefure. 



Kuni EltfEimnics (Reel) Ltd, Utvit )$, Redfieltts tndustFifil Fftrlt, Redfield lane, 
Chureh Cruukhflin, Aldcrshoi, Hams. CUlS (iHt Te( f02S3) 850088- 



PtssK fosh mt Music Mw^ini* fnr ttir Amsird. d Tspe ver^aui) h1 £49l95. 
D Dell vnsiiin al K5Uy5 vh, Add £1 p*[t (£5 ovprspasj 3 1 eidju!* a 

n 



NAME 



I I M f \ \ I 1 ! II bgiivDali- / / 



ADQRE^ 



POsrroojJE 



TIL 



124 IhiM r [l(i«|i*l'^ ^''1 \"^^^^^ wtiMimd L'mlit Kutin (7 dd^^Jtr chetjuni, Music hiiKhinL' ii riill> 
mniliJiEi li]i» nilh Ihr .'\instrad Cl^ 4M, -664 iurt 61^1. 

Llhurch twikhain, WilpwM.Hs.nts. GUI! ORE. 

Tfi(t*»iidt»|li>rt*rqyir™sw(i[iniie f >^t::^f^ViJW .pftA-l^-£ 







m 



|l 

A- -to 



i 
I 



5O*i0iieGf«> 



GAMES AT THE 



SPEED OF light:: 




n 



< 



LIGHTFORCEiJi fof VENGEANCE .... 

LICHTrORCEis Thf; Pumiihmtnt Arm of 
GaJacric TiqhXar Cormmand. 
When a Terran 3<sttled system at the edqc- o! 
the gaJajty i.? mix&d by an alien force, rei^engc 
comFjs m ih<; form of a Ioba 
LIGHTTORCE fiqhter 
LIGHTFORCE confronts alien in a dazzling 
battifi above Ihfc siran^ landscapes of the 
IcePlaoei.lhe Junglt Planer, Ahen factories 
anti ih^ impasKabJct Asteroid Bell, » 
LIGHTFORCE — at the speed of Light 
from FT^. * , 




0^ 



-T-? 



»•» 



SHOCKWJIY RIDERS are Xliep;cic^f!|te • 
Htieet gangs ATHLETIC, AGGRESSIVE & * 
^ ARROGANT '-as they cruise along the 
tuple-speed rnovinq walkways that cirelfi 
the great MEGACITYS-oflhe 2Ist Century. 
THE ULTIMATE AIM OF EVERY RIDER 
IS to go "FULL CIRCLE" -to do that.he musf 
fight off the Block Boys, the Cjdps and the 
Vigilantes - as well as negotiatinq the Speed 
Traps and Rid*i Ramps erected by the angry 

local raslients! 

SHOCKWAY rider is the mo^t ojiqmal 

arcade gam^ of the yfpr - 

THE ULTIMATE FUTURE SHOCK!! 



1^- 



A 



W,.M 




UGHTFORC^ AVAILABLE SEPT. '86 ' 
SHOCK)A(AY RIDER AVAdABLE OCT. '86 

* SPECTRUM £7.95 

AMSTR AD & COMMODORE C 8 .95 



KSTCtl^TH AH *l10lfT ft l faster than light, carter folus group of companies, 

SEOGELEY ROAD EAST, TIPTON, WEST MIDLANDS D¥4 7UJ. Tel: 021 557 2981 (4 UncB) 



RE-ACTION 



iocai shQps w sfQCk Antsirsd 
software^ insU-0xd&r rounds 
your best bet 

Finding i»ii whether Eire 
post is chsrgfd st the UIC rate cr 
the Etiiope tatti led to a lathsr 
irieh sit\i»Uon (or is the word 
Euracratic?) w/ten we mug the 
GPO in four di&erant areas. 
VVl\eti you ssk&d> letters coald 
Ijc posted to SQUthstJi Ireland at 
the inland rate, evwi thcugh it is 
not part of ihe UK. Eire, how- 
ever , is now part of Iho EEC. 
Now r^tes go into effect on 30 
October, but GPO headquarters 
Itad not yet told its districte how 
much. H's most unJiicoiy they 
will bo l(i99, 

W<? agree mtft you tMt ad- 
vernsements coald he W0Xd9d 
m ore specifically. 

Won, but vvaiting 

Thank you for auch a wonderful 
ms.q. A i^pt^cnaj thanks to the 
Action Tes(. which is flJ^t^:la33, 1 
will not ]:)urchasQ a gam€! with- 
out fiiBl looking ai ii 

Please CAXi you explain why 
[ have not yet leceived my prise 
from ih* Fightijig Fit compe- 
tition of July's issue Qf AA? I g^t 
a great pleasmie m doing all 
your comps, and ne7er won 
SKcept this- 
S Fowell 
Dageitham, Ess^k 

1 noticed in jrour Septembei 
issue that I had won your FjfgJJf- 
ing Hf competitioii. Unfortuiiate- 
]y there has been ifolhiRg 
through my letterbox to coitfinn 
this ~ ie. 3 prize, Do^ tlUs mean 
ovu beloved post office h3S oncfi 
Again muffed it or have you tiot 
s«ni Ihtm out yet? 
Rob Mundin 
portfimoiith 

We confess. The delay in sond- 
Lig the FF prises was cur fsait 
We sejit the list of mim^r^' ad- 
dressss to Mslbaiims Moass in. 
mid -September, who sent it on 
to their warehouse for ttisiling, 
iTou should hare received your 
kun^-fu disk by the n>n* yoa 
read this. IVe're tikiag action to 
m^e ouF ^dsiiitt ss tvonderfut a? 
Acnon Test. 

And for the heads among 
you avraitmg your Harvey Head- 
banger hate. Fiiebird is seeing 
toil. 

Parallels multiply 

I read with ir.isrest Mr Tyte's 
letter (ReactiDii, Oeiaber) about 
the supposed sutulanTy b^- 
ivieen Maistertronic's Sadzone 
and AmsQift's Scout Steps Out. I 
really don't see why he picked 
ati th«se games. Has he novei 
noticed any similarity heme en 
gajiiefl snch as Alien 3 and 
KriighUore, those in Amaoft's 
Roland series, the Wally saga, 
eivd of couisc aU the recent 
Msrhle Ma dne^s clones? 



I actually own both Rsdz'Oiia 
and Scaat, so I am not JM9l 90ing 
Irom sdieen sihaxs. None of the 

13 scieens of Scout are rs- 
poated in Eadzone's AZ screera, 
TLOir ate any of tho tunes aintUar. 
Radsotie also has sprite-plane 
effects, r^derinabls k«y«, bair- 
graphs etc. 

The only Bimilaiity 1 can see 
13 that both have the 9^une djet- 
InctivQ graphic atyle, and that 
th(3 authors' amn^ are the 
sarnel 
Dean Covil 







Design a d9$k 

I have owned an Amstrad CPC 
4€4 since September 1934 and 
am very happy with it. As time 
went by I decided to expand the 
system. Now I have th^ cnicro 
and green screen plus a light- 
pen and joyaljck and DMP 2000 
printer- I ant having problems 
fitting all of this haidwaie onto 
the tsibla. So I need a new desk- 

1 have looked around and 1 
cannot find one which will suit 
Arnold. Moat of the desks which 
are auppoaedly Amairad com- 
pacible have the keyboard on 
one IgvgI and the monitor high 
gbovo. Now Arnold gets aji- 
noyed when hi? VDV friend is 
loo fax away, ed he pulla Out th^ 
power connector to spite the 
owner. The Amsltad really 
needs s, large Hat table for the 
keyboard and. monitor and S 
plinth foptiona]) for a pfinier - I 
enclose ai) example aketch, 

Could you tell me if auch a 

desk exis!s? 
TrevOx AtkLn 
Kexby, Lines 

Yes. Arnold is rather tOO atta- 
ched to the monitor. We houghi 
soma aiaeiteion cables st the 



Antstrad Show to make room tor 
serial interface, XOtK bOXes and 
ali the things that come between 
ihf^rn. Perhaps there's a wood- 
worker smong oar readers 
wiiod like to draw up do-it- 
yourself plans for an ideal 
Arnold desk, to be published in 
a later issuer. 

Tall me another 

I think you can scrap your hl- 
acora table. Don't you Oiink it's 
an opporhuuty just to let people 
lie? But you won'* listen so I'll 
(ell you I've madie 130,250 on 
Ciinfrighi and killed two gangs 
and two other cowboys, so print 
That. 

Richard Potter 
Telford, ShxopshlfH 

Soimeis Hka you've b00tt print- 
ingmoney. 

Moral is$ue - more 

Liara McMasler sayB (Eeactioti, 
October) that 'young children 
will play (he game, and so nu- 
c:]ear annihilation will become a 
casual thing,' He ends his loiter: 
Think about ill' 

[ wonder if he has aver 
thought of all the '^killing' and 
'dying' which play such a laiga 
part in so many computer and 
other game 9, You alart the game 
with a certain number of 'lives' 
and then proceed to destroy or 
kill the aliens or whatever. 
When you make a mistake you 
lose 'lives' linli] 'Ho lives left' or 
'Gairiie ovei" - ie. you are dtfad- 
Isn't this treating life and death 
casually? 

If a child id being brought 
up to respect and value all 
forma of life, he or she should 
regard this ae fantasy. Surely we 
all have a liking foi a certain 
amount of fantasy. 

Tin opposed to most forms 
ol censorship for adults, 
whether it be computer gaittioe, 
books, films or whatever. 

I'm not a parent <i'm a 44- 
yeai-old single woman - no 
children) but 1 do fe*l that pa- 
FSnta should do fhoif beet to 
bring (heii Children up to re- 
spect life {their o^vn and otheir 
people's) and things, and to 
teach their children to think for 
themselves. 

With the exception ol cheaa 
I don't think that young children 
(ie. under 12 or sO) ShOHJd play 
computer war games. Most chil- 
dren of this age are simply not 
mature enough io realise the 
implications of the battle they 
axe fighting, were it to be real. 

The thinking-for- 

themselves bit comes when 
their friends have the game - 
Thaafre Europe ox whatever: if 
they don't like it they should be 
able to eay ao and get support 
from their parents. Wo live in a 
nucleax age ao children tvi^ask 



parents and other adtilts difficult 
queaiiona - children have been 
asking Iheif parents awkward 
quesliona since ttme began! 

Id hke to add that I play a 
fairly wide variety of games on 
my CPC4e4: arcade, adventure, 
shoof-ero-up&. 1 also enjoy 
playing about with graphics and 
music, although t am no com- 
puter buff, r also oct^aaionRll^ 
play war gajnes. 

But my appzoach to the faw 
war gantes f possess IS more 
serious and thoughtful than to 
SiMrsfrike Sot Sorcery! 

Perhaps we a// should work 
out what we ihtnk about nuclear 
energy and weapons. 
Jean Benford 
London SVi2 

I bet Liitm McMastei has sat at 
home and enjoyed watching 
films such as Rambo, Firefbx, 
The Third World War and many 
James Bond films. PSS does state 
in the iEistrudion booklet to 
'Hipatre Europe that war is bad; 
the game wae made so as not to 
degenerate into nuclear ping- 
pong, Mr McMsfiter should ring 
C0S(X3) 66 G405 and hstenL 

Anyway, megasine, I find 
thai your Mastergame varies too 
much: one month an adventure, 
next a war game, then s shoot- 
em-up etc. Perhaps you should 
have a maetergame in each dif- 
ferent category. 
SHeaney 
Edinburgh 

There jast aren't enough games 
released every month to Aaw? 
jnore than arte Masts-rgame. 
There may be months were no- 
thing rates the title. So the 
award is for the one b^t gajne 
overall Besides, var/s(y is the 
spice of lifE, all t&xt and no 
shooting makes i? a dull boy, 
etc. 

Dummies l>lame Toot 

Cheat Mode in August printed a 
poke for infinite lives on 
fferberi'^ Dummy Rati. After 
typing it in and trying to load 
the game with no Juck, I deci- 
ded to look at the real of the 
pokes. 'Ahl' I said, 'a poke for 
The Covenant. That's strange; 
thia iooka familiar.' No wonder. 
It 'iVaa the exact same poke as 
the one for HDR. I typed it in 
and tried Th& Covenant. It 
worked perfectly. So what hap- 
pened to the poke for Herbert's 
Dartimy San. Please, please 
could you print it aa f can't s^em 
to get anywhere with the game. 
Eric CampbeU 
Wlriral, Mersey side 

Sorry, Eric. Toot was helping 
Trevor p^ste up that page and 
hid Herbert's dummy. We 
haven't been able to find it 
since. Duimtiies ar« we. 



AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 19S6 





Games on the way from 
North Pole programmers 



Tou Ittclcy lot are in for a very 
hoX Christmas, Some of Ute 

gainea isippeenmg look very 
exdtiitg indeed. You thought 
you had seen the lol - you ain'r 
seen nothing yet. 

Ko Amstrad owners in (hsir 
right mind will warn lo miss 
HmaTtland - one look at Ihi3 
arcade adyentufe from Odin 
and, at jusl imdei £10, you w^ 
be scioarning foi it. Absolutaly 
49lomiclJng graphics and ,-. 
You'U j«s1 have to wait til] next 
iisaue'sijig leviev-'- 

Cluristma^ lirti$ !^ {TlQ'n de- 
{iniiely compllaKon tinMi. 
Several companies are oontend- 
iRg !hi9 year. Virgin's Now 
Games 3 (just tmder £ID agam} 
includee one oi the all-hme 
greets, Sorcery, as well as 
Codfeiujne M&t II and 

Keepjng up the tradilion is 
Beaii-jtslly wiUi W Computer 



AntStradCPC 



Hit? $- On this mighty cassette 

papk, you can f«id NsTberl's 
Suuixny Ran, On th0 ffuij and 

Cauldrcfn - something (oi 
everyone. 











Ii jufli wouldn"! be Chria- 
traas without They SoMa Milhoi} 
3 (£9 95 CHSselte, £U,3S disk). 
This year's contents include 
i^ghtsi PDcf, Rarnbo, Ksmg Fu 
MststeJ' and Chostbuster. Now 
thatCMt'tbebad, 

MaatartronJc, not wishing to 
left m the cold, ie launching a 
senes of games , Project 
AmoS'ba, judging from the 
screenshot wo have, looks very 
promistng. Have you heard that 
Kuig Zub }ias had One of h:5 



The Sth OihdftJ* Amstrsd Com- 
puiar Show was a larger sue- 
cess than ever, with people bus- 
tling in al) corneis of iho 
Novotel Bhowioom snile in Ham- 
itti&rErtuth, London.. It wa« hajd 
wosk ai times trying 10 get a 
fjhcjss look at the^ fitany vimind 
and ■^onderfifit produoU on 
oJTei. 

The Am^ttad aland was 
oveifiotTing v/ith enif]UJr«« on 
the new PC, Several of the IBM 
clones were on display that first 
w«e:kend of October, with im- 
pressive buflinees . eofwaxe 
packages ramitng - however, I 
di4 catch a glimpse of 
Miciosolt'g FSf^ht Simalaior !J on 
btie niadhine. " - 

As tifiual the show was 
dominated by hudware add- 
otis. phig-ins. dowhais - you 
get the general idoa, A lot of 
new bu3ine6s-5ofti»;are houses 
are creeping Into (he picture, 
what ivith the 8000 rang^ and 
now the appear anco of the PC, I 
noted that much oJ this software 
rujts under CP/M Plus (vstsion 
3.1) and wUl therefor*^, possibly 
with Honie reconfiguring, work 
OR 6 1 £8 madunos- 

An Amatrad show coaldnV 
really be called an Aniatrad 
show mlhout the noify AJhgaia 
stard. True to fonn the crot^ 
from Shoifi'Sild, weie showing 
their latest and ptisi greatest at 
full blast, Eesidos^ lniej!ce|]^or, 
the only other gamea gotiwaio 
people present were Design 
Deaign - Tm dure a Jew more 
big 'rocireation^ 'software 

houses at the show would be 
welcomed by the Antstsad- 

u$ing public. 

DK'Tronica had a very 
smartly attired btinch of people 
from Gfoal Yamouth - all in 
black t-shirts ipocting ihs com^ 
pany logo. Their stand, wiOi 
matching black background, 
showed of! all their previous 
products with a fine seleqtion of 
the new -^ such as a, gadget that 
fuxn? your tnomtor Inio a t«levi- 
xiotL. (A colour monitor C4m re- 



ceive colour pictures; gioen- 
aciecn ugcrs will got pictures in 
green-and-,..uni,,, green).. All 
this for £70, It's not cheap, but 
th«n picture quality is fairly ex- 
cellent. DK'Tronies' othor pro- 
ducts are aimed at PCW uaeta. 
Among these were a dock «ard 
and a programmable joyetick 
intenansc combinod wtth a 
sound generator for the hitherto 
voiceleaajoyee. 

With alt the roHi-boardsf 
available, not to raention kits iO 
laskc them yourself, yOu would 
think anyone trying to promote 
a new board has either cracked 
wp qr has produced something 
quite astomnding, I think the lat- 
ter is correct for Brit&nniA Soft- 
ware, With some very clever 
address fiddling, this Cardiff 
firm has huil! a board that allows 
an amazing H roins to be irv 
aerted. Only ownora of the 46i' 
will appreciate [he wonders of 
this board, as it was originally 
thought impc>Kslble to have 
mere than sever roms plugged 
into those machines - it ii; a 
fairly simple mattor on 664s or 
61 29a, Britaftnia's boajd. at £40. 
iR not ths cheapest around, but it 
has tli(i most to offi^r. 

Ainor will have Mede^l Uni^ 
verse ready very shortly. !l ia a 
three-dimensional dt^wing sy- 
stem that can rotate 360 <ie- 
grees, «Jom in or out, and use 
any of 27 colours. It is compat- 
ible with the AMX ntoUfte. IM,^; 
eluded in the package is Gate^ 
raattBi^ a stxAtegy game. 

Amor, from Croydon, 
besides demonstrating its rom- 
based wordptocesaor Proiext at' 
the ahow, had another rom tip 
its sleove: BCPL is coming very 
soon, SCPL la the Jnnguagei that 
formed the basis for C It i* 
bJock-stnictiired into proc«- 
duiea - sjmiliir to Pascal. It gen- 
erally gives good machine ac- 
cess: the stack, for esEampie, is 
easily matupulated. 

The Electric Slcdio of Letdb^ 
worth. Harts, had vahoua new 
produt^, nso^tfy a)ine<il at Uw 



crown jewels stolen? Awful 

tiadgedy. That's why Private 



► SFUNHLLEDGAMES^ 



14 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 




Zub from 'the glorious army of 
Zubl' is sent out to reitieve 
(hem. Confused? So are we, but 
that ujifortunately is all th^re is 
go on at the moment, 

Sepulcri (odd word) is the 
htle of the next ottwmq from 
Ariolasoft. The 
closest thing my 



• •. 



■ ». 



mi 






PCWs. There was a Ughtper, 
mou5@ and video digitizer. The 
video digitber comes in two 
mode3a, 0110 for *e PCW and 
the other for the flias. The Gi2B 
vcraion uses the extra memory. 
iiEd conaequendy can display 
i»p 10 12 frames » E^csnd (the 
sgr^en size te underaiutdably 
half tiormal size). This kind Qi 
technology will set you back 
ElOO. 

KQmbo, from LivingBioti in 
ScoilAnd. WAS also demodtstrat- 
ing d video digitizer. We look 
ore h^dt tc Somerset with ufl id 
do the cover of this issue. It's 
reviewed on p^g£:s 24 and 35 - 
wa liked 11. 

Thinking of getting a sec- 
ond drivfl? Silicon Syistems of 
Mar.chester offers a choice of 
rrno. One of therrt ia the £90 
AmdrivG. This unit is ideal lor 
S64 and 61 SB owners *s it's de- 
signed to fit neatly on top of the 
built-iiv drive, Ths second of 
ihcse drives jg the M^ga Drive. 
At £.229, As th@ n^me suggests, it 
has a million hjimi of <jisk 
capacity. It uies S.BS-inch disks 
and can format BO tiaclts, 
doiible-sided. 

R4&m«iri)>er the teifolution- 
ary oxpansion torn thai the G*r» 
man firm Vortex biought out 
alMut A year ago? Well iheyVe 
ceitaiitly been Haissig in ih^ 
BiAck Far^t, ctonstaivily sirivLng 
to produce b&itiehr. more powef- 
tul hardwire device* tot yoor 
Amfllrad, They nuukie!: in ihe UK 
through Viglen of HanweU, Lon- 
don. The iin of ."tdd-ona is so 
long and umprcssJTc that I can 
give onty a quick descriplion 
now of some of the products and 
promise a fuller look in a later 
issue. 

To whet your appetite, the 
new Items from Heuenstadc inc- 
lude both S.SS- and 3,5-mch disk 
drives. (It was thought that S,&- 
mch disks wei^ impossible on 
th« CPC machines ^ ageiin Vor- 
»x has prf^ved th«) textbooks 
vfToag.} These can be eilher 
suigle or dual dri'vea, giving 



Hardware 
showdown 




AMSCENE 



Another very exciting 
graphical aircade adventure will 
shortly hit the sireets: Flrel^Fd 
from Hew«on. There ar« 800 
beautiful locatiotta, *et in (his 
medievBl land of 'Toioi'- Y4U 
take the role of Six Calahea^i;, 
who musi rid Ihe land of aft evU. 
(Now whiGia have T heard thai 
before?) It looks good, certainly 
ivot something you should pa$9 
by. 



1987 s^ns po^t to the Roysfj^n^mtJActJofj ctxnpU^shdw. 



70Sk and l,4M fojtmaLtted oap^ac 
ity. A SO-mega^yie hard disk ia 
also on the shaves. 

Ueere of the SitB must have 
been envious for a while: 513k 
availaJble for both the 464 and 
664 while they vrere left with 
IZak, Sulk no longer; there 14 a 
special rarr.-oxparLSion bc^rd 
jusl for 7qu. But th&rc's a prico: 
£139. Vortex product may be 



eKceptJoJi.ai in purformance, but 
they ako havei exclusive pdcesl 
It wa£ certainly a jam- 
padccd show, with many new 
exhibitors - I ined to ge; round 
to aJCi bu; ume was not on my 
side. Judging by the support 
and cnthusiafiin shown by 
everyone, the Ajxistiad ma- 
ohiftfts have a Icsig way (o go . 




51 ..wrecker suggests is a bur- 
:i: z: : -r.d or grave - Bp«lt 'sep- 
Dlchifi'. Sounds cnricing, does it 
not? I'm sure you'll Jorgive them 
!he error of their ways - after all 
11 ^ an American company, 
Airolaxofi comes up with soirie 
very exciting stuff m the next 
few monlhi. including The Ce-ti- 
tOTiins tiad Use Challenffe ofUto 
Gobott (Gobots go botty - 
ycahl) 




The Edgv (nothing to do 
with VZ}, is all set (0 release the 
follow-up to FAirlighf - with the 
original dile FaiiUgkt B. This 
begins where the prequei f?l 
left off. Ii'ft all outdoor scetiery 
in enchanted forests. sear<^hing 
for the Book of Light. Patitron 
should be on the etalls soon. 
Programmed by one of the 
GOF, is's bound to be fantastic. 

As you can see by that im- 
pressive list, there can be no 
cause for tears^ this Christmas, 
The gamea market for the 
Amstrad aeem^ 10 b^ at an aJl- 
lime high, and the standard of 
progrants is getting higher and 
higher. 



Are you a champion? 

The (Ime toprovt yoxif wii5 suing 
prowess is neanng-. Mikro Gen. 
ifiE organi^r of the National 
Computer Games Champion- 
ship, holds the final on the Guy 
Fawkr:a Dfiy, F5 NowRiiibfST. ai llit 
Savoy Hotel in London 

There will be a new game 
at the final, which me.in.3 r.o out 
will haTe an unfair advantage: 
Tbfct nij.rr:faer-orre champion will 
receive a copy of all the Mikro- 
Gen games, an impj^ssive 
trophy, a healthy £200 in the 
bsnk and national fame. 

Can you resist ihc cha] 
Ifilige? Gfii yoiji oifl s^iOOf^i-T 
ups from Tiitder the bod <ind 
i?(:l!t h-lr-jstirry. WllO kiiOWi;, yO!j 
may be the next hero 



AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 IS 





K V COMC£fdfj FOR 




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Follow up to Moon Cresta. Now for your home computer. 
Pilot your space fighter over the planet eliminadng all alien life forms on its surface. Build up fire 

power on board as you dodge missiles launched from land silos and undet^^a bunlcen. 
Face the giant Death Star at the end of each orbit. You will need nerves of steel to pass this testl 

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Serious Software Is now devoted totally to the CPC range, and we need 
your help! 



With our new mogozine 8000 Pfvs beingi devoted 
totaUy to owners of the PCW S256 end B512, we on 
AA can devote «ll ouf pages to the CPC ronge: the 
464, 664 and 61 2S. This means that changes ore 
needed to Serious SoBv/are. 

Although ihe PCW became the star ol Serwus S^^frware. this 
does not mean thai Amstr^d Actioa is purely a games mag now, 
Serious Software still covers what business packages come oui 
for the CPC niodula. but an devole more space lo other aspects 
of home? computing such a progfaminmg, type-ins. hinta and 
tips, comms, giaphiCS and. masic. 

We would like youf help with Serious Software; after all it's 
your mag- Send us your Type-Ins. We arc looking (or quality 
lisimgs that show elegani use o£ Basic or even machine-code. 
We will prim them if they are worth typing m. Use the form on 
page B€ and remember, we pay tor wtiat we prm«. 

Having problems with Basic? Can't perauadc your printer 
to print? Wonmd about WordStar? Then wxiie to Problam 

OUR ADDRESS 

Address your cpirespond^nce 
to TypE'lDs, Problem Attic, 
Hot Tips or A Day ixi the Life 



Attic, Ajnstrad Action at ih» Old Bam, We will print What 
problems we can, and if wr can't answer Ihem ourselves then 
maybe one of our multitude of readers can and if they can't 
they might like to read the reply. But please don't ask us for 
solutions to games, if wo printed those U might spoil the game 
for others, and tliere might not be room in AA for anything else! 

Send us your hints and tips. If you've found any neat tricks 
to use in Basic. WordStar, Graphic Advefiture Creator, Ouili, 
dBase!!, or mactiine-code - or just want [o show off - then send 
youi lips Id Hot tipt, Amstrad Action > at the Old Bam. 

And if you are USing your CPC 1o conlrol youj tram set, run 
your business, play in a rorkn'roU band, or anything else that 
you might like to tell us about, the address is R Day tn the Life, 
AitLtta^ad Action, at the same address. The aeries kicks off with 
a look at how we produce Amstrsd AcUO-p On Arnolds, but we 
would rather hear from you, TeU us what you are up to in 
anything from live to SOO words, and we will let the cat out of the 
bag. Please include your phone number too. so that we can 
contaci you should we need more details. 

CPC owners, this mag's totally lor you! 

AmEtraid Action , Future 
Publishing Llmitedn Briuiel 
Precinct, SomertAn, Saxneisflt, 
TAU 5AH 



SERIOUS SOFTWARE TOP TEN 




The chart created by AA readers | 


■ This 

■ morm 


mon!! 


1 %(^W{«S 


Ti-Jb 


SolNViire hwj59 H 


1. 


1 


27.4% 


GRAPHIC ADVENTURE CREATOR 


Incentive 


2. 


7 


10.4% 


EASI AWISWORD 


Amsoft 


3. 


8 


6-870 


MINI OFFICE 11 


Database 


4. 


— ' 


4.2% 


DISCOVERY 


Siren 


5. 


3 


4.0% 


LASER BASIC 


Ocean 


6. 


2 


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AMX MOUSE 


AMS 


7. 


4 


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10- 


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Electric Studio 


I 1 


And Gnphic AOvoftrufe Creator h sttt at numbetr one. wttti fm not goiftg to sa/ anything ebo about East Amsvmrd. 
over quarter of you out Ihem reckoning It to be the best there doosn't seem to be a kit of point But Distsovery 
thing since sliced bread. What is happening to all Ihese h,^ certainty daahod in there, in the nurnber four 
adventures then? TetJ us, please, what you are creating pcssition. If you want your vote included in these charts:, 
on G^.C and we wIlE let everyone else know. use the form on page 96, 



AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 19 




omof 



oress.^' 



AMK Pagemaker puts you rigfitat the heart of tfie 
desktop publishing revolution. 

At long last you can produce newspapers, posters, 
leaflets, notices and handouts in your own home, office 
or school. 

We're not talking at)Out amateunsh resuHs, bul 
extraordrnarity prof€SSionaf work with crisp text and exciting 
graphics. 

If s thhe sort of 21st Century t^chnolo©^ that's turned 
Fleet Street upside down and is pan of the most exciting 
advance in publishing since Guttenberg and Caxton. 

You can type directly onto your screen with a choice of 16 
typefaces or, if you really want to be creative ^ you can design 
your own typefaces, and, just like the most advanced computer 
setting, you can centre, range right, left or choosa literal 
justificalton. You can even have full pixel control over character 
size and spacing, 

Alternatively, you can load in either word processing or 
standard ASCII text tiles with fully automatic on-screen text 
formatting. 

EXTRA! EXTRA! 

Using the pafiems supplied, you have outstanding graphics 
facilities for drawing, sprayjrigand painting, or you can achieve 
some incredible results, using your own pattern designs. 

The cut and paste options include copying, moving rotating, 
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— ZOOM ON AMX PASEMAKER — 

A mode conversion routine allows you to load in screens and 
digitised pictures from all Am strad graphic modes. 

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE! 

The 'Preview' facility gives you total controf over your work t^ 
allowing you to view a page in miniature at any time, while also 
penmitting the viewing of diskj>ased pages prior to toading or saving. A 
wide range of printers inctudi ng the Amstrad DM P-2000, Epson FX/RXJ 
LX/LQ, Mannesman Tally MT80+, Shinwa CP80II and Star SGIQ'IB 
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AMX Pagemaker is supplied on 3'^ disc and includes a 
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My lordSr 
ladies and 
gentlemen! 

Speech with no hardware requirement? There ntust be a caich 
somewhere. 

Not one but several, oa \ soon discovered! 

Being ralher impatient when some new software lands on 
my deskn I tend to shove the disk (in ikas ca/se) into the dnve and 
connmence loading without further ado. Wol!. you can imagine 
my surprise when IQ frustrating minutes passed and speei^h 
had still lo reach my ears! Okay, time lo ail down and read the 
ingtTucHons- Before long, I came across those fatal worda: 'For 
the Amalrad CPC 66* or 6 1 S3' - aargh! 

VThy do software houses insist on alienating part of the 
Amatrad computing fraHerivity? This is a definite thunnbs-down 
in my books. The reason for this incompatLbility is sheer 
laziness on the part of Superior's Mr Patorson- A brief explan- 
ation is in order: 

Locomotive Basic version l.O aa seen on all 464 machines 
has certain differences from \fer8ion l.i (on 664s and 6] 289), 




With versiot^ 1,1, strings cajtv be used directly in CALL state- 
ments and resident system ejctenaions (ESXa); these are com- 
msu;«ds preceded by the bar (' | '), Version 1 .0 does not allow 
fltrings to be passed in this mannei, but requires a twO-sta^fg 
prooese, For e^cample, in version 1 -0 you would type; 

compared to just this in IJ : 

Although version 1.0 Uses strincr variables in a slightly 
more cumbersome way, there is absolutely no justification for 
making Speech*, (disk version) incompatible with version- LO 
machines. 

Tape owners can be thankful the program will run on all 
CFQ ittachines. The cassette Ims foU instructions for transferring 
to disk. 

The inBtnictiona accDmpariying the software axe very con- 
ciae. I do recommend tlial you read through them thoroughly, 
as it will save time having to conetaRtly refer back. 

There is a auite of six programs on the disk or tape, each 
having its own part to pUy in allowing; the user full control over 
software speech, 

22 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 



Starting with tbe firat of the programs, tilename SPEECH, 
you soon discover six new commands available for you to { 
manipulate. All are i^uad with the KSX bar prefix: | SAY, 
SPEAK, I PITCH, j CENTRE. iLEPTand (RIGHT. 

g SAY will cause English words following in quotes to be I 
converted into phonemes or what Superior Software calls 
'epeeoh panicles'. In other words, it wlU literally say (or attempt | 
to) whatever is within the quolation-marks. 

Adding a question-mark at the end of yotir sentence » within! 
the quotes, will raj;3e the pitch of the last word. A full-stop has] 
the opposite effect - it lowers the pitch, A comma acts a& a| 
pause, 

I SPEAK is more EleKible than I SAY as il aHowa the pitch ofi 
the vowels to be varied. This is miplemented by placing al 
number between ] and & after the vowel. Using this trick irj 
conjunction with commas, full-stops and question-marks pveEJ 
you eKcellent control over stress and intonation. 

To change the overall pilch of the sound, there is a iPtTCHi 
command. The parameter following it ranges from 1 to 20 ~ if 
chooses (he lowest pitch, SO the highest. 

The final three commstnds axe for setting the chaiuieli 
through which the sound is to be played; CENTRE, | LEFT and| 
I RIGHT, 

You may feel that these coimnands saiisfy your desire \c 
hear Arnold speak, However, there are several other interest-] 
ing aspects to Spssch! - the other programs on the disk or tape. 

All Of these programs except NOTES nltlS! first hav4 
SPEECH loaded into memory, otherwise 'Unloiown command'] 
Will appear regtilarly on the screen. 

DEMO gives the user a general idea of the program'i 
capabilities. It may be wise to switch oil at this point; however 
for those still plugged in. the demonatration shows how each 
command works and the efiects of changing certain parameters^ 

Next on the list is SPELL. This is quite an amusing and at the 
same time educational game. The program is a simple spelling 
test. The computer speaks the word to be spelt and prints 
example S6nten.ce on the screen (with a blank, of course) to pud 
the word into context. There is an option to change level oi 
difiieulty, AtoC. 

EDIT is available for adding to the data dictionary, 
dictionary allows English text to be translated into a phonet 
form before it can be pronounced. The routine called Translato^ 
scans through its input-buffer and produces a list of phoneme 
codes in the output-buffer. 

Among the other programs is SAYFILE, which alio we tes 
files lo b* spoken. If you save a letter wntlen with T^tswoid. 
assembly hstmg from MsKsin Or tven a Basic program with i 
'A' option (saved in Ascii form rather than tokenized), SA'^ 
will churn out whatever garbage it manages to findf 

The last of the six programs spews out a 2?k text £le 
either the screen or pnnior. It's a detailed desctiption 
Speech!, how it works, how to incorporate Oie prograit^s inu 
your own masterpiece. It takes the user through basic puj 
gramming right up to machine-code level - in fed there 
nothmg hidden', aU is readily got at'! (I do not reoommerd 
word-processor the author used for typing NOTES - it seems t^ 
have done away with the last character from every line.) 

Well, with all the speech synthesizers currently available, 
am in two minds as to recotnmending this piece of software. 
£IS on disk and £10 on cassette, it's not exactly cheap: paying 
double that amount will get you a iairly decent hardwat 
speech synthesiser, which wiU not only give 'superior' spe 
but also stereo sound output. On the plus side, Superic 
Software's Speech! gives you a wide range of control over 
sounds actually output and 0ves you the opportunity to 
corporate Speech! into your own programs* 




SEmOUS SOFTWARE 



h Kftith Wils«n of lowlond ScotEtirid one of those rising software sfars? Twd A A Rove games or* his work on th« 
Amstrad. StDI at school, he's one of rhe programmers behind (and in Front qH) Vidt, Rombo's video digitizer. 



A day in 
the life: 

Keith's 

partner 

Arnold 



JiiBi over five yeari ago I muuuged »e 
Kiape up enough money to puichase my 
very Ex»I computer, * ZXai. Little did 1 
guess that now I would be writing numb«r- 
one computer games like Ym Ar Kuagt-^ 
md Cre&n Best&t 

If there had been lots ol stunning 
gatrtes around for the ZXiSI l<ta (here Are 
now for othc^r computers) 1 don'l think t 
would, hav^- ^Tfiir qifl r-atind to wiriclrtg my 
own programs. Eu( S yean Ago there 
wasn't much else to do on a home com- 
puter. So I syat'&ma.licaUy wtjrked iny way 
ihf ough the Basic nianuaJ (meaning I «f Arted 
somewhere in (he middle and lead ihe 
whole thing baokweida> and began deveV 
Opmg my v<iry own gjurtes. 

IVIoflt of thJem cotisisted of ^ iioiizont^y 
moving boat/spEicecrUlj'AeropIane filing 
depthchaiges/rockets /bombs At a hoiisont- 
ally moving sutenarine/aliwn/bird and they 
wer* all very simple, but ihey involved a 
lot o( techniques Vi^hich are standard in 
mo^l games. 

Creeting sluQ' in Basic is a good way to 
learn iiow to prQgr*ni!i. But gJtqr i while J 
begiin 1o gel fed up with the J:ack <A sp^qid 
and doctded to enter the mystic lands of 
assembly code. 

These days avi^rybody seams to havf» 
anu-assembly complcixes. Machine -code 
stfcli isn't lEisilty that complicated, the knack 
Ite« in deciding exactly what you*re trying 
to do and how yqu'te going to gf> about it. 
Anyway, alter a whiJe 1 found that I didoH 
■eem io be gating anywhere with as- 
nmbly. I padked it in, fhloiking that I h&d 
Still a lot to leari^. As it lumed out, I knew 
mwi of it already and reisliaed that 
machine-coding wrasn't so bad alter all! 

The neit gieat step m computing his- 
sory was the ZX Spectrum - 'the world's 
b«et p«isonal cCmpulec f^r under £500' the 
adx said I eventually bought one and reap^ 
phed myself to machine -code. 1 also began 
10 get ideas abotit making aomtt money out 
isf my hobby. 

t decided to write an adventure uaing 
The OuiL' Entitled Tiie Lost Orh, ii involved 
a ^ryvtsl orb (surprisingly enough) which 
j&s had to find, Once the gome was wiitlenf 
t iSedded to have a go at celling it. Evetiiu- 
iQT ! tokl quite a few. The price was low, 
b«i xi mad« me »oiiite mottey «!d I w«* 
reeionably happy. 

I began nrymg out all kinds o( Ldea* in 




TnachLn9^!x>iie and I had pimu for develop- 
ing arcade games and other advenrorea. 
But then there were rumours about a now 
cobur computej with an amazing apecific- 
ation, and I began lo wonder if it would 
flood the market. The Arnold turned o^t to 
be all It was promiaed [and on time ~ uidike 
the ZX8i 01 Sped rum?) and yet again I 
changed computers. 

Things realty ata;i«d happening when 1 
met a guy CfUed Oeoige Wright We had 
■imilar ideas about writing software. We 
got logethei and tvcgan ussng a Commo- 
dore 64 with White Lightiung, which was 
fast and much more fun than aj*eml?ly 
Working together (urned out to be very 
succ«aa[ul and we began developing a 
game, whic^ foi vorioua reasons never 
^ujte wa£, [ncidentaliy, onA of my great 
prograiiuning secrets a to drink lots and 
lota of lea which was (and aliM is> regularly 
supplied by George's wife, Linda. 



If you are using youj CPC to control 
your train set, run your business (the 
Big Bang? the army?), play ut a 
rock'n'roll band Or anything else yoti 
might like to tell XiS about, the address is 
A Day in the Life, Ametr^d Ai^rion, The 
Old Barn, !Somerton, Somerset, TAll 
5AH 



ft was ai^iund thin time that t became 
seriousJy involved in Amaitad progrAmm- 
ing, Marcus Sharp (of Rombo Produdiona) 
was desperately looking for an Amstrad 
programmer lo help Wm finish o5 a game 
conversion. The game waa later aban- 
doned, but I aoon found myself working 
again, this time for Imagine Software. 

My task was to convert the oomJEjat 
game Yie At Kurg-Fu from the original 
arcade version by Konami onto the huii\ble 
Arnold, 1 reckoned that 1 could manage it 
and with the help of a coUeague. I did, Yi» 
At became a very famous game and il 
opened up a whole new avenue of oppor- 
tunities for me, Imagine was keen for me to 
*tay The firm managed to perauade me (fl 
do another arcade ^ronversion, CsfaoR 
Bsret. 

1 wag getting a bit stuck for hours in the 
day by this time and I waa vary suiprised 
(and pleased) when George offered to do 



the graphics Jor Bsr&i. You can judge the 
results for yourself, from start to finiah, the 
tape version of Green B0r& look sibout 
three momhi to write. The graphic* ar- 
nngement worked splendidly. 

We often brought the two computers 
together to work on - it was great, 1 wrote 
code and George designed graphics. We 
argued, drank aome more tea and fixed the 
problems- I then took the graptuct and 
slotted them tmo the program while Geo- 
rge worked on more graphics. It was hec- 
tic, but we often got more done on those 
weekends than we sometimes did in endre 
weeks. 

One advantage of writing your own 
game ia that If an idaa dQ«an^t work, you 
can ;usi scrap it You can't do that on a 
canveraioa; you have to work round it in 
some way. 

Take tureen Berefa sczoUtng for 
example. The arcade maclwne ItAB cont- 
inuous scrolling btii i1 also has « 68Q00 
processor with pSaaty of memory and hard- 
ware. The CPCs just can't handle moving 
that amount of acreen by software alone. 
And if you used a hardware scroll, the 
score information at the top and the 
weapons at the bottom have to be softwaxe^ 
scrolled back to Eheix corrett jjosition - not 
to mention the wa.y the hardware scroll 
mesfles up the screen addressingf Hence, 
we had to use the 'burst' scrollmg teqhni- 
qpae. whtch looked very jerky to me at the 
time but T fust had to accept it. At least it 
gives you a bH of a rest ftom the hectic 
gameplay! 

I am now working on an original game 
called Moonstadow with George. It is a 
large muiti-acreen game with a combin- 
ation of fantasy and space efernents, to be 
leleaaed on the Ocean label for the 
Artistrad, Corttmodore and Spectrum. 1 
won't give loo much away just now - yoy'U 
jual Have tO wait untU it's reJeaMd n«xt 
yeax. 

George and I recently set up a com- 
pany calJed Vega Graphics to handie 
Moonsh^dp^ and anything else Which 
comes our way. We are also looking tor a 
local Spectrum progrartumei of proJesalodnal 
gusJtty - anyone in the tothi^n area who is 
interested please g«t in tottch: (090^) 41 

The future? Well, I'm working on digit- 
izer software for Aombo's VidS, and I've got 
plans for some serious software - aftsem- 
blers, art package etc - as well as a few 
mcjd g^mes, I also hope that Vega 
Graphics could develop into a form, which 
WDidd make it poasible for us to morkel 
some of our own products, an area which 
we ieel i« betier handled at the moment by 
the esportt »uch a« Ocwui or Imagine, But 
who knows ,,,7 

I have found that 1 enjoy computer 
work. When I fmiah my education (I'm 
presently doing O-levela at Deans Com- 
munity High School) 1 think that Vaga would 
be an Ideal full-time occupation. 

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. E am 
iUl y»aia old - in binary, of course. 



i^ &pHisampw.'ga^UK 



ciiCMD«Mal 



AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBEE 1086 23 



SERIOUS SOFTWARE 




Video digitizer comes, conquers our reviewer 



The Vidi video digitizer 

Hombo Prcrductioiis, (0506) 39406, all CFCa, £as.9£ii 

Could this be the addnoiv cf tli& century? Judge for yourafilf! 

Vtdi, as It's aSg^^onat^ly termed, is a video digitizer. In 
la'^nan's terms, it's a black box llial wiU '^rab' im image seen 
through a television came'ta or even a picture from your video 
recorder and store it as rmntbeis in your Amslrad^a memoiy. 
From titter* you cati zeproduce it on your monitor. 

The people lo thank for (his ingenuity are Rombo Produc- 
tions of Liviiigston, Scotland The same amaU company - Golin 
Taullaier, Mamts Sharp and Keith Wilson - about 18 months ago 
brought out the highly successful romboard called Kombo - in 
my opinion the best one available. 

Vidi is very Biinilar in appearance to the Sombo. It comes in 
a neat black box with a length of fibboti cable aUowing lor easy 
connection to any of the CPC range. There are two through- 
connectors: one is at the end of the ribbon cable, and the other 
is on the circuil board inside the Vidi. This lets you use other 
peripheral devices that don't have through -connectors (and we 
all know the guilty party concerned). 

Mote imporianiiy . what do^ it do and how? 

Vidi contains itt own GET (c«ithod,e-ray tube) controller. 
Arnold contains art idenheal one. Among the Vidi's circuitry are 
two banks of 3k ram (random-acoa^. memory), giving 11 16k of 
video ram. Tim enables Vidi to obtain a single frame of 
animation from either a video tap* or video camera. On 
completion of this grab, the Vidi ram is read into the computer'^ 
own screen ram. 

Oporaticn time for this is apprortmately 300 milliseconds. 
This gives a sequence of three pictures a second, which is more 
than adequate for mosi applications. 

Software to enable the grabbing or digitizing of video 
pictures comes in various formatu; rom, disk or ca&iette. The 
software is supplied as RSXs (resideot system extensions) or 
rom (read-only memory) external commands, which allowa 
users to customise their Vidi setup. 

Fight, let's connect up! 

The edgci-coimector at the end of the Vidi ribbon cable is 
attached to the Amsirad's expansion port. Take care as it is iiot 
impossible to insert it upBide-down. K you possess a romboard, 
plug the Vidi rom into a clear socket and switch on. Alterna^ 
lively, load the software into memory - you should be ready to 
roll I 

A cable included with the Vidi frame grabber is fitted with 
RCA (phono) and BKG {video) connectors. The phono end plugs 
into a socket on Vidi clearly marked video ift". Likewise the 
video plug goes to the 'video out' socket on your video 
recorder or video cameia. 

la. case of difficulty, this nesct paragraph may be of some 
help. If, for example, you have a problem with the connections 
(ijn. other words, if they don't tit), check that the Video Out is 
actually composite video and not RGB or modulated RF. RGB 
signals can be converted to composite with & suitable patch lead 
- this is where your dealer comes in handy] With RF signals, I'm 
afraid you are stuck, as Vidi cannot cope with these. Several 
makes of video recorder are fitted with phono sockets rather 
Ihem BNC for Video Out - no problem here, for the correct 
cables are readily available from hi-fi shops. (Consider yourself 
iBcky with a phono plug rather than BNC; the latter tend to lose 
their bits and cost a lot.) 

24 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 




Hopefully you are by now correctly set up land ready 
play with your new toy. Let's look at the software. 

You should £md several new commands at your dis} 
These are accessed via external commands, which are prefixe 
by the I symbol (this is attamable by pressing Shift and [a\ 
There are a host of useful commands, the ixiost comprehensi\ 
being VIDEO. 

Typmg this command should have you staring at a mode 
screen from your video camera or recorder, h's bemg contin^ 
ally updated, approximately three times a second. The smooj 
action on an ordinary televrsicn screen results from 50 scans] 
second, so the effect of Vidi with j VIDEO is rather like a dia 
ujider strobelights. 

At the bottom of the screen Lb n status line showing varloi^ 
parameter settings: 

Cor^7 Br J 07 1^64 Mode 1 InkJ^^-^O Sav Prt 

One of these wHl be highlighted with a cursor. The cursor 
easily moved using a joystick or the arrow (cursor) keys, 

*Con* is the first option. Con varies the contrast throughl 



SERIOUS SOFTWARE 



range from to IS, Zero causes the greatest diSgrtexiCO between 
light and dark ssigrt^. To alter v^iiea fbr Con and its asaodates, 
move cursor keys oi joy slick up oi down. 

'Bri' stands t<?T Brightness, A valuij of sero displays much of 
the picture in dark, while 15 has fhe opposite eSect. 

Hardware analogize oomrols supploment Con and Bii: there 
are tiny variable f effiatoia osx the circuit board, which you adjust 
with a small screwdriver. However you should not need to. 
These controls do not actually modify the video signal, but 
rather the samphng width and sampling level reapeclively. 

Televiaon and video use 'Lnterlaced frames' to produce an 
intage on the screen, With this system 6^5 lines are displayed; 
the pictures are actually produc&d by successive scans ot 312 
and ^13 lines, or odd" and "oveii' fiamea. On the Amstrad CPCs, 




only 200 lines may be displayed. This probleim is overcome by 
windowing' oiilo an area of Ihe image produced by the video 
camera or recorder. This, window is set by the vertical position 
indicator, 'Vpos', The three digits following are fhe number of 
lines of&et at the top of the picture. 

Moving along, we enounter 'Mode', The modes available 
are 0, 1 and 2. Selecting mode appears to have no effect - in 
tAci it will display as mode 1 until either a 'Sav' or 'Prt' 
command is issued. The reason for this is that Vidr is designed 
to grab frames in modes 1 or 2, Thus lo obtain a mode tmag^. 
several screens in succession must be mtegrated to synthesize 
the picture. This is done by reading 16 screens in mode 2. Each 
time a screen is read, the brightness control is increased. By 
taking note of the brightness setting, Vidi cau switch on a gioup 
of pixels, hence assignmg a mode ink to it. 

One drawback of using this method ia that the required 
image must be perfectly still. Otherwise a blurred picture will 
result, Vidi was designed to work in modes 1 and 3| the mode 
routine was included because, given the right conditions, 
excellent printouts can be produced. 'Hiis would be easy with 
videotaped images. 

The ''Ink' command will do the obvious: alter the colour in 




any ink pot. If the ink number is moved up or down, the 
relevant colour number will be displayed in Ihe next bcx. 
Moving the cursor to the boK displaying die colour number lets 
you alter its value - a range from to 26. The ink numbera 
xeflect the mode chosen, so in mode 2 only inks and 1 can be 
used, and in mode 1 only inic$ 0,1,2 and 3 aje changeable. 

'Sav' saves the screen image to either disk or tape. It is 
passible to save screen images in rapid succession. The 
filename you select will have a number following it, incremen- 
ted with each successive Save, 

The Trt' command will grab a screen in the curicm mod© 
and dump it to a dot-matrix printer. Epson-compatible printers 
and the Amstrad DMP30OO are catered lor. Mode 1 and 2 
screens are pruned normally across the page, whereas a niode 

image is turned 90 degrees on the page. 

Pressing £scape at any time will exit you from I VIDEO. AU 
the parameters set while | VS)EO was in operation will remain 
ittiact even upon re-entry. 

The other bar-commands perform essentially the same 
function as features available from the | VIDEO menu. 

I VGRAB, as its name implies, gets a auigle frame using the 
current settings. The scre&n mode Ls no! reset, thus allowing ilie 
user to use this command repeatedly without screen blanJdng. 
One thing to beware, though, is thai ! VGRAB works on absolute 
addresses ; therefore the screen should not be scrolled. 

Ker€ is a list of other bar -commands a( your service. FqUow 
them with a comma and the value you wish 10 set them to, 

1 CON , X s<et contrast (x ranges from to 15) 
I B H I , X set b rightness (0 to 1 S) 

I V'POS , X set vertical position (0 lO 137J 

I VMODE . X set giab mode [0. 1 or 2 only) 

JVINK.X.Y nef ink x to colour y 

jVPRINT print hard copy m current |VMODE 

There is one other command. | VCONVERT. With it inks Z 
and 3 swap colour. Us main purpose m life is fox prmt«:i or 
graphic routines that expect shades to be in ihe order 01 S3. As 
a result of its hardware coniiguration Vidi picks, up shades in 
the order 0132. with the darkest and 3 the lightest. Some print- 
dump routines can not cope with this - thus the command 
I VCONVERT. 

Enhancements are on the way for the Vidi software, Rombo 
progiammers said at the Amstrad Show: 

• true colour, which will work by taking a series of frames 
through red. green and blue filters 

• mode from mode 1, thus greatly speeding up synthesis 
time 

• series grab, enabling 6 1 Z8 owners to grab a series of frames 
in the extra bank of ram before saving - animstion sequences 
may even be possible! 

U that wasn't enough to whet your apetite, within the next 
few weeks the hard-working Rombo team has promised to 
make screens oompatiblie with l!aiJtbiitd''s £20 Ait Studio (last 
month^s cover feature). This will unleash untold power to your 
disposal - imagiite the fun you could have distorting facial 
images! 

The most excitutg is yet to come: using a smaller screen 
size, they hope to have Vidi producing 10 frames s second. This 
will give much smoother aitimatlon and will really push Arnold 
to his limits. 

You nnay have gathered I am head-over-heels with Vidi. It 
opens up a completely new area for experiucnentation and 
enjoyment. It's a stunning new product. 



GOOD NEWS 


B AD DEWS 


1^ Digttiis up to thtes Irstnts s 


•■ Vsu will need a viAbo 


sKunfi 


retni-iicr or c^nrnta 


^ CoIdut, ifiodB, i:DntrastundBt 


P Can't receive lets vision 


tiifj ussrcontrfKl 


iiriApeslRF jigiiab) 


^ Encs 1 lent p ri ntar-du mp 


^ Tshes lang timn tn gnnfij'^iTA 


raulin« ittcludtd 


inn He $£ii!en 


>■ WsM-iMrittart. easy-ta-f allow 


^ Will keep yaii jMiay Frcni 


maiKifti 


WQrk 


►^ Only £30, 


»■ Costs rsto 



AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 25 




A Ion of type-ins fhis month! On« ii long and poiiibl^ 
loud; the rest ore short and spectacular. W^ hope yot 
like the section's new look. Keep them coming. 



Ears for Arnold 



I * k 



SQVND DIGITIZER by Richud Monte iia 




With this amazing liating Arnold can apeaje with your voice - or 
inimiD Ftarikie Goes To Holl|rwood ■ or lepioduce any Eoimd a, 
microphone can record on an ordinary cassette. 

The program is a simple sound sampler, Wheix you play the 
audio tape on The *S4"b datacorder or a tapedeck plugged into 
the 6S4 or 6128, the sounds are converted to the digitized form 
Qui Arnold can reFnembftt. 

With a simple command yoa can reproduce it out of his 
speaker, [magwe what your computer could say at strategic 
pointe^ in your games. (Don't be too rudfi, now!) 

A lot ol hard woik is in aioic for you with all this typing. 
Type in the Jisting carefully. It's best to get a friend to dictate 
while you type - goea more quickly saves losing your place by 
looking bagk aihI iatih from paper to screen. 

The data statements actually coneist of machine-code pro- 
duced iis.LAg the Maxan ^iBsembler, You won't need an aa- 
aembler because the Easic piogisum sicnply pokea the numbers 
to memory, starting at location 49000, 

The listing contains an elementary checksum roulinei all the 
numbers have to add up lo 57071 or you have made a typing 
mistake. It may help to realize the data is made up of hexadeci- 
mal numbers, so you shouldn't be typing anything other than 
the numbers to 9 and A to F - always two digits, coimtia, two 
digits. 

Save the program before you run it, or you might lose your 
work! Instruclionfi for saving it are tagged onto &te end of iJie 
listing as REM stacemenfe'' You naed not type th«se in, but it's 
not a bad idea to keep the directions m the progrram in case you 
can't find this printed pa^e in a year's time. 

When you run it, oms of two things could happen, U you get 
the message 'Error in data,' it's back to the start and check all 
those data statements again, If all is correct you will see 'Data 
OK -well done' and the cursor returned for your control. 

You wiS! now ^tlBnwsome new commands to play with, 
JA8ne<i trla Resideint Sjqif^^Ktenaions (RSXs), commands pre- 
ceded by Ihe bar. ' ■^^, whio^^iares a key with 'kj '. (Yes that's 
ighi, baicommatftda; two pin%ol lager aa4 a pi^okot pi enspa, 
pleatc ' ': |^ 

:ESOl'ND luLs to^^^B^e sJt^eral comm,aj and nurnbeitt 
following :[. - paiamelers - to Itistruct the program^ 
TtiartTr cOUi'i^e ofaotioti. 1^ comwter needs to j^^iv^^ 
\d Jsnglh: Miure tn m^msy to Iqui the soui^ i^^^^ 
much ofii '^i^; t^'.^«i:pari4etera roiat be prei^^t' 
the noisy r.iessage Parameter error* 
o^OM^anaJble co-:rol3' s^i&ed 

2$ AMSTRAD ACTION PE( 



lilt^lfrA 




Ssfoxe deploying this comisand, insert a casseUe wig 
music, your voice or any other sound, into the datacorder, 
message will surface asking you to 'Press a key.' Do 
requested and the sound data will load. The fomvat of 
command and the other commands is shown below. 

PSOUND is similar to iRSOUND in thai the first 
parameteia must be present. Hiat ia whoro the amulaiity ei 
as 1 PSOUND instructs the computer to output through 
Amsirad's internal loudspeaker any data it may have picked 
during the eKOCUtion of jRSOUliD Again there is a thir 
possible parameter; this time it controls the loudness at whic 
that sound wiU be output. 

1 R and iP are identical to ESOUND and IPSQUHD. The 
are fox all incredibly la^y people Who hate long commands 
amjust too kind! 

Due to the programrrMtg technique employed, it i» m 
powribl^ to speed up or slow down the rate ar which the eou 
data is Qutput - this is constant. You will get that type of el 
only ill vvhen recorduag into meinfl^ijjusing [ESOUND or 
you alter the third paramel.eMTori its default value of 13^/ 
number can range betweeninuRt^Sa. The larger the 
the slower the sound dat||^gJlbe read into the 
consequently when playS^^MifeK" {using either |PS 
1 P). the sound will seem to have bee "speeded up. 

This may »oundirath**'i3^nmtttg^PQn't worry 

fiiUy grasped Wi' &nm^n: trial-and-eurar 
Sd of teaching youTKgtftS:' r-iw ^ 

follows the promawd layout of thn: ^oimnand*:^ 




jon/gmgtls rateefddits en 

itfoncanbfebetw&an Qand 66533 (8JTt¥j 
i?iigrih e,i .'/(Jen and 65536 (&FFFF) 

tm ofda^ i-j.. jy s'dr. be he'iweeai 1 and 23H 
jd^ ess cart p a- bet.v taa i |y34 ,15 (5F); 15:5 




I 



i;l6b^Mt: 



'7^' 



^^^ 





p* ■• •'■•'.■'. 






Pe m direct rrti>ifeJ^|flSijy,i,(j „ ^^, .^^. ^ 

N^ When "Ksadir" aboeara f^ ^^ 

'fH^»*UJi) "^ appears, type: r^Clr^r. ,:..,.,, , 

S. Wowl , ■ '■ ■ ■ " 



j(3 CATA 






,23. 1B 
•3E .M 



,7A,lft3.23. 

'BC.C9.cr- 



A7.BC 




O^tJ DAI A ^^w£P^»^>**^-^°' — — 



Slf CATft 6^ 

66*3 CAT.^ ?A. 

eaQ DATA &2 

7pa DATA '/<i 

72^ t-ATA iO 



Ik. I 
57.4^ . 
.44.49. 
.?A,ZA 
.{JA.&0. 



A.rj.sy.'i' 



C,^5 



20.31 



4e,4? 2(J,2A. 
lA^.lB.ptJ.iSA. 

43,4F.&2,'1<1 
.3f),9A,PA.A4 



Aft .'1-3 . '^^r 
2A,2A.2^| 

41 .52.5*1 
d9,4t.4T 

3i\,OA,.07 




", IS eesenljal Uiai vou r„» .i. 

.^,jA»?*R^D AcTrON DECEMBER 1886 ^ 

44'; ( ■: 




TYPE-INS 



your program: If some one enlerg an incorrect code, a harsh 
roice Cyouis) comes isooming through the epeaker teUino him 
to'GelLosH 

Or you could set up keys to say theii: name when piessed - 
might be usehil for verifying input, or for ieachmg a loddler to 
recognke numljers. 

The possibilities are encUeas. 



Ufft 85 



1(3 ' Sour.rJ Eorrnj'ar- 

2}5 ■ (c) Amat'ad Acf-lon 

30 ' 

6^ np£^jCiLT"y ; MEMORY S-lFFF 

ij0 KODt !;1MK 3,0;BORUFR Sil'iK \ .2^ 

80 GOSUB ''.4P-.00SU9 210 

9fl END 

10$l ' err-nr no cyfie fajnd 

11^ PaiNT-OtUmZLK coot HAS ^0T ". 

t33 Sl&P 

1&(J PR1MT"S0UW 5Art?L.EP" 

lag PRIKT t'RlHT"S -' to sjmplo acund" 

I7p PRIMT P - tp pUy back sfttind' 

^60 PWIMT"! -- XrO save santpl^d somd" 
TSa PIliNT"] - tQ 'icfid Fiampitifl sounti" 
2W HfTUfiS 

26(J LOCATE l.ipiPniNT srACfcM20O5 
25fi PftlM SPACEI(2^P) 

27P LOCftTE l.t.PRIVT Cftn^ 1 7) : GOTO n^ 

2&iJ ' sanplG EOunO 
j!SC! L3CATE 1 ,10;PRI^]"TtJS£HT "i 
SEiJ* FR1HT-CASSETIF 1J*10 TAPEDECK" 
3TP PHI NT-PRESS A (tEV (1 TO 3) " : 

yiQ PRINT"TO SAMPLE SOUNU" 

■m fcS'INK€Y?:lF R*""" THE^S m 

34P aw nS1iir'2'J",bSJ Gyr€ 3^0-360.360 

3b0 |jOT3 sag 

37t^ 'R. Teds'! 5)30 

410 FKINT"PP,FSS A KEV (T PC 3) " . 

i,l<i PFirJJT"Tp PLM 3ACK SCUNU..." 

Ai^ .g^IUKEYt IF C*-"' THc^J 413 

44e OH HSTftri^S-'.cS) GOTO AmAm^^f^^' 

4f;.0 COTO 430 

4E1V loc-(VAL(e*)H10'?!f)+al?00 

473 'P.irj«,S<'i3C'0 

J8p RETUSM -isa ' SAVE SAMPLE 

biSP LOCATE 1J0:PR1"*T-SA^,'E ^ 

R1H FRIfJT"WHTCH S^WFLE (1-3: ■" 

b5fl d^-lNKEY^^li- rt^-" THEN B2J 

333 CM \%SJH'n7'.m GOTO 65(J.5:3ia. 55# 

64p GCTU r^20 

!i/3 RETURN 

5!J0 " load s&mpl<t 

W^ LQi;ftTE Uip^PnlMI-l-OAO -. 

Q'a PRINT' WHICH SAf'PlE n-3h ■■" 
eia eSMWKHYJ IF sJ-"' THEN Q10 

eaS OM n^siR{'i2r,flS) goto 6ie,fi4«!,e43 
use Sfcro feio 

660 HETUP^i 



2fl AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 



a 



Motor control 

Here is a Hating that iwlJl add two RSX qonunands, provir 
especially useful for users of the 6S4 or 6138, Depending on t^ 
tape deck, some have to type i TAPE then CAT juat lo be able 
lewiiid a tape ^ all a bit awlcvimrd. 

Alex Aird of BiJntiingham lias come up with a helpfJ 
•oloution to this problem. Type in the listing, and il all has 1 
entered correcHy, a message tC'lling you that you have 't.... 
commands available' wiU appear. These extra comrnanda ai 
I ON and |OFF, 

Their action is aimply to start ajid atop the cassette motor | 
nice and neat! 



1 ' NqTOI CO'^T^OI 

2 • Al0!< Ai*-d 

3 ■ AiBstrad Action 



[)BC B6 



10 MEMORY 4fi^i3 

20 FOn 3-42603 10 4203? READ h« 

30 l?^-\<AL(-&''*bS-):^KE a.b.^rNEXT 

<^ii CALL 41W 

BP PRLMf'Nsw nodiif finds | Oi*! arirl ; 

e« PRINT"|!)FF rtO>* ava^ltiil1&" 

,■0 ■ SAVE ■'o^of^.oi■>^^>.42(»^0.33 

8U DATA 01-^0.A4.?-«J9.AA.C3.D' 

93 DATA BC.ge.PJJ.SO «0'25,A4.C3 

1W OATA 2B,Ai.C3,2e,A4,4F,CE,4F 

11(3 DATA rt6.Ci3/3S.C3,6E.BC,C3 71 

i2t^ DATA Bt _ 






/ 



Kaleidoscope 

Alex Gough of Hastings, Sussex, has sent a mirvellAus iistina 
Theie are virtually endieas variations of panerm. A great (id 
can be uaer-controlled^the beat idea ia to liy di^*fer«jnt patj 
meters yourself. Trymg to explain what each option coi^d 
would taJce a lifetinic. 

Once the pattern has been completed, the computer *;] 
beejj rudely at you. Pressing N takes you lo the be'ginnirij^iof i 
program: S vriU. save the screen piclyre to tape or dlski 



2 ' Altx 
5 ' Anst 



Go ugh 
rad Action 



D9C IB 



IW *1CDE 

2;: INPUT 

iO I'^ifd' 

79 IMPJJ- 



;,iNK 14,5;!^^ 15.2 
■■GRAPHICS MOOE(ft 1 cr 31 - 
-OVEPAU SIZE 1^-301: ^;' 
-MC. OF flbPETlTIONSr " :9 
•■tJO OF SI2E INCREMEi^TS: 
^l3 OF LlNfS P=a BlOCK: 
lENGTH OP LINES : <; 



I 



ll 



' ;« 



';9 
■:d 



=i 



&0 PRIHT '^HP^ ;23; J"hiHivF-i 

&^ MODS 3; ORIGIN :Mi.2m 

160 C1S:F0H ^-l TO c;FOR a-T TO g 

ilfl KMHT(R»!a*f)*a-.yI*IT(aHCTrs 

120 Ki.-INT(RN0*f)*a:yif-INT{BNI>*rr3 

i:i0 o-IfiHRHD*iS>*1 

m;3 I^GR b-1 TQ d 

15^ PLOT **ti*c.V*kJ*<:-P 

160 DflA'* xx^b'K.yyb'C 

170 PLC" -le-b'c.y+b'c 

I9p DRAW -XK b'c.yy*b*c 

■. 5g PLOT ii*b'c,-)i b*€ 



7 



1 



i .'1 



-y^'b*i; 



ZHJ Pl-OT Jc-b'^i -y-o"f; 
22ia DRAW -«K-&'c -y-y b*C 
230 NEXT MEX'iKExT 
24y SO'i^D - .it00-2O& 7 

253 «a-^"WHUb ;,?--" ;ii*-lNKEV*:WEN[ 

261t IF L0WERM8S)--E" THtM GPTC 2SC 

2;<3 1= La^EBS-;aS)-"T' THtK ftUfw 

Z80 GOTO '90 

2fte SAVE"tPIC',l>.tC0&&.4^P00 

3;^0 LOCATE 3,12 ;PP INT 'RtADY- 

I^HJ COP 3-1 "^0 t5^:MEXl:auN 



s!^" 



Pattern; 




TYPE-INS 



flii mteiMling program from Mr PTmBtalld^Kt^siun-a^'w „ . „ 

^vtrtt ^«ii T 7^^^ ^^^y ^^"9 *«^^ 'o execute - ampl« time to 



*e »mp„,« r^diir draw. ^^pJailiS^Tr^JL'Sr.''- 



1 

3 
13 



p P Tufistail 
Aftsirad Action 



MO&F 2 BORDER IHK JJ.^INK l.U 
20 FPINT -Enter Pattern Factor (p.S 

3? INPIJT'to 4.5 fo-^ best p^i.ce'-ns). 
40 CLSiOHlGIK 32^,2^0 J. e39.4&&.p 
5P FOB x'3 TO 13P STtP n:y-2,&*»t 

B0 INt^ 1,(X/1I21 ,{J</T0) 

m NEXT 5i.;G0TO ?U 




«*0k your Iimch and eat itf Nevertheless, this is an mterestma 
gmgjvorfllir to b^ typ^ in. It .hows good use nf^e^PC? 
functions and what they are capable qL 



B A Knight 

Amfltrad Action 



Dflfismber T96e 



T(J MOOF 2 IWK i*.(J.lNK 1.26;B0RI>eft 

20 FOB s-eF^ TO &&? STEP 1^ 

ass y-20EJ+12S*COS{s/639*Pl*41 

49 ORiGlN B.y 

60 z-75*C0S(a,/639*PI'6] 

60 GOSUB 160 

70 Mt;tT a 

fiU hOft b-320 10 639 STEP ^^ 

i»0 ORIGIN b.y 

njS ?-7&'COS(a/639*Pt*e) 
1 2 (J NFXT b 
■J^ PLOT g .y 
MO PLOT h.^i 
ibp <J0TO 1!>0 
16^ FOH n-1 10 3&0 
WO ;«-Slfi<n) 
tB0i y-COSfn) 
190 PLOT z'x.a'y 
200 NFi(T n:(4ETUnN 



i- 

dpi>A/rf 13 a ^HTiajn of 5pirai«, The Imes listed are the onlir 
^ihat aeed to be altered. 



I ' Spirald 
20 POR ^-np TO 53a STEP It* 

ap FOR l>-32SS TO 625 STEP 1(S 

II (J ?-7^•SI^{a.'6'J9•PI■6l 



j' H^BlHinBiblQ^ 



^f^^ed a listing which ia 

'}r^' Aimtrad Actoir is rot 

^tultirtg to readers through 



1 
2 

i 
4 

29 



Hypnotic 

Sminr Tully 



Decfimbai" T&Sfi 



-1 .1P6>h1P.i "ifP 






FNT 1 ,40,-1,3.40.1 ,3 
EMV 1.1^. l.tflP.iP.I .190.10 
]0 ON BREAK GOSUB 5F»P 

4P OEriNT a.DiMOOr QiOfilfilfi 3?p,20P 

50 FOB a-a fO 15: INK a.2e.NF!tT 

tt0 C'0:iNK 0,0: BORDER Q 

7P WINDOW #1,^,1 .1.2b 

B(» WIMDOW 1*2. 4^.40 J. 25 

a^ PR IN r#V, "WATCH CLOKE^Y AMD VOU" 

t0gi PftINT#2."WUL SOOH BE IM MY GMSP" 

np FOR k— 4 TO 2 STEP 0,S:C-c*l 

120 FOR f-0 TO 4*Pl STEP Pl/50 

130 ;,.2y*f'cos(r ic)-v-zy*r''&''JU-J<J 

14(» IF f-(5 THEI^ MOVE X.y 

ibO DRAW i<,y,c 

ief> NEXT f.k:FOR a-0 10 c:IsiK a-0:NEXT 
170 CLS #1.CL5 i^2:0H SQ(n GOSUB 530 
UHILF 1 if'OR a-c TU 1 STtP -1 
IF a-c THri« INK 1.0 ELSE l»4K &*! .fJ 
CALL &0D19;IF a*c THEN INK 1 >■? 
INt a+1,!J.lNK a.ze 
FOR b-l TO 3& M£X1 V>,a;WEND 
SOUNO 1 ,6f3p,46J«!ip.l6,l ,1 
OH S0O> GOSUa i30 flETUfiN 
IW 1.?fi:PCN 1 :MODE 1 



Stained ^lass 

Thia mm offering from Al^stair Scott of Grangemouth, Stijiino- 

slure shows off the powerful Fill comin^d av^afale on vex3o« 

M Of Looomotive Basic (6S4 and 6128 owners only, I'm afraid) 

The program iiseif takes several maiutes drawittg evemhina 

ap; the wait ia well worth it. though ! 



Stained glass 
Alflstni'' Scott 
Awstrad Action 



■ - 664 AUG 6123 UtiLY 



09C ee 



I 

2 
3 

^ ' 

10 DEFfWT a-/:DeC PAM0OH!?£ TIME 

20 MODE 0:eOPDER ^:INK 0.fl 

a^J ORIGIN 320,2?IO 

4i3 FHR fl-O TO JB0 STEP 'Z9 

5^ MOVE 0.0 

1t^ fOR b'P TO 36(^ STCP Tfi 



2ta 

230 
?40 
25f» 



7p DFAWa 3^*F5IN(a*b).3B»COS(a+b).1 

6$^ NEXT b.h 

90 FDP a-0 TO 380 STEP 12 

ltS{5 FOR 1J-fl TO 170 STEP 12 

110 MOVE b'SINta).b'C03(B) 

no FILL lNT^RN0"H) + 2 

■) 3ii NtXT ,to .-IJ 

14« LI CAR INPUT: WHILE IMKEYS^^CHRSp 3} 

1^3 INK iNTlBND*14)+7,INT(HND»2B)-l 
16^ WFNO:NOftE 1 : CAL L 8iBCP2 



Lun 



J 



AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 29 





1 



KHRRL 




A 100% role pfaylng game... 
Come down fnto the fa^cfnatlng 
and devfJIsh world of 
THULYNTE, Whether you are a 
warrler or a dealer, you will 
have to fight against terrible 
ennemies whose only aim fs to 
destroy you. 

A 




mdnwdzzdxi 95 





Forget about soapy characters 
and flying witches I 
The most fearsome of all anti- 
socials has got one mission : to 
get the president out of the 
prl5on-ilke MAWHATTAN. Blood 
will not be spared I 







1991 : The ytar of all dangers, 
motorways have became btoody 
battle fields, full of looters of all 
kinds. Your mfssfon Is to drive 
an artfc-lorry changed Into a 
tank and to carry your cargo 
Into safety. 



When there Is no space left Jn 
hell, the dead are coming back 
to earth... Your fast possible 
Issue Is : a supermarket where 
you get down^ body and soul, 
piloted by an ICON. 




I . Voie F^iix Eboue 

94O00 Cr^tetf - France 

TEL. 0.1033.43.39.23^1 



0UT0N17THN0VJ 



DD no DD OD PD DO DO DD 




DO 



OO . DD DD--DD ODx DD 



IT IS THE YEAR 2075 and the 
first Strategic Defence 
Initiative Satellite is in its 
provisional stages o^ 
development, tt was found to 
be impo&sibie to tesllhis 
wea^ori'without staittng the 
war it was desigfied to ^- 
prevent. So the chaps f ror^Jhe.— ^ 
^^ ? department de*lSedl to 



-"^h'piWould exan^ine aM the 
ci|-€uit boards an(( J 

ccknponents of th^^arn f \ 
i^bnkjuter by travellii>q inside 

It' / - - r^r 

Now you must c©fitr6l your 
robot through this satellite 
without starting something 
you may not be around to. - 
finish! \ 





t 



'% 




It*'- 








SPECIAL FEATURES \ 



♦ Devious puzzles! ♦ 

♦ Over 250 screen^*^ 
♦ Isometricjrt^w ' 

♦ Printout' opjieffffor mapping 
♦ Dif|fif^t room sizes ♦ 
Mfl^ltichannel music ♦ 

AMSTRAD 464/664/61 21 
£8.95^ C14.95^ 

Ariolasoft^^ 

'n OniNtHf CA^t OF [ilHI<;UlTYblNlJ'f<JllhU,>i'.)Vjl-L>t.H(-,aUf f>Cl WAOt 
"•nrti^ 10 AHUJLASiOf Tf'O BOX ■till lONOOISi-NWUHB 



TYPE-INS 



Double height 

Great stuff from Leighton Detrick of Port Talbpt. He has shown 
that it is posaible to print double-height characters using ordy 
Biisic commands - no need to revert to machine -code. Well 
done. 

Unfortunately it is rather slow, bur then ihat'a Baste for you. 
Following Leighton'a offering i$ a machine-code alternative - 
note thp speed difference i 

The message you want printed in double height must be 
inserted within (he quotes on bnea 4D and 1 10. The number 36 in 
line 50 indicates thiit the characler(s) to be displayed total 13*3; 
therefore iJ your sentence comes to 30 characters, the number 
will be 20*2 which w 40. 

Following the 26 in line SO are the symbols *!'. The figure 
after the multiplication sign {'** in Basic) will have to be altered 
depending which screen mode yoy are using. As it is set up, it's 
ready to use in Mode 1; changing the number to 0.3 wiU allow 
you to use it in Made 3, and a 2 alj o- ws use of fAod^ 0. 

1 \ ■" CduL le t^eT^rit 
:} ■ Leia^ito"' Derrick 
-J I AnaU-^iO Action D^n 36 



Following is the machine-code double-height routine. Type il 
in. tf entered corr&ctly, a message will be returned in double 
height; otherwise you get an error message - in normal heightl 

The letters yon wish to print in double height must be hold 
m a string (for example. aS- "WELCOME TO DOUBLE 
HEIGHT"). Follow this with a call to the ma chine-code program 
which prints the contents of the string: CAL^ &3t50v}, fa^ in 
line 60. ^ 

2 
10 FOP a- 



ft pa Afiatrad Act'un 



Oct 66 



3$ I'OK^ a-VAL( ~ 



Sl67g THEN ?fttl^T"EflKO*l- SrrP 
79 DMA 00.66.01.00 BE, g^,7E.F5.at. 



,24. PAPER fJ-fl^BWR ^ 
1 ,15,1 



■■3 :mk ^,P:I'4I< 
20 CLS:TAGPLC 

5,0 FDB X-0 TO ra*2€r^ 

60 K'fi V-1 TO 16 

7^ IF TiST^X, ¥1-0 THEN 90 

m PLOT 1 -,^ L^:PHlNfDO.IELr MQU^I 



33 ^' 

no 

ie^ 

1713 

■ea 

193 
5W3 



ATA 2e,Ca.23.t6.7C,"3'.; 
DATA ?a,CC,A6, S3. 0^.21 

CATA n. 23.-1? F"^>-'-^; 
OAIA 21 efi,89.CD.AB.B8 

DA-4 a^.cD.fte 9a.3f.FE 

CAIA 0A,CD,6A.eB.3E.^»8 
DATA f-f ,C0,bA.BD.3^ OB 

■ tnHii CAL( &aooy S:fl* 



.aE.FF,2t. 

.CO bA EB, 
CD.fiA.BB, 

ab "i e . -eg 



Arrows and Kats, 
we made a hash 

Do you have a problem with youi printei 
giving £ when you want ^? So did we. Line 
10 of the first listing in Problem Attic last 
month tiiat came out sa £0 in two place*. 
Eagle-eyed editor noticed il at 3 a.m^ and 
printed out #0 on twa itay-bitsy papers to 
be stuck over. Unfortunateiy at 4 a.m. Toot 
pasted one of thetn upside-down. So 3/^ 
should be #0, 

CPC Basic uses the # - in compute r&Be 
the sign is called hash to mean the 
following number is a "stream director'. 
Try looking that up in your handbook's 
handy index. Ha, Streams 1 to 7 a,re screen 
windows; atream is the full screen. Stream 
3 is t^e printei and 9 is a disk or cassette 
fitc the system assumes unless you say 
otherwise. So the function PCS (#0 ) in that 
Problem Attio program tells which screen 
column the cuisoi is in. In assembly lan- 
guage # is used to mean the following 
number is a value rather than a tticttnory 
location. 

The ' and ' cause slmiJar confusion. 
On CPC keyboards it's the key shared with 
£ (the pound sign) tvin e»st of the zero, (On 
the PCW, after a half'hour'a nu^ssing about, 
you c^n get it by pressing B^tra and i 
together. Not very friendly, J Some printeia 
-show It aa " (called caret or circumfle* or 
even hatj, 

Saaic Understands both - they have the 
same Ascii code - to mean index ot expo- 
nent or power, fiy hand you would write 
two cubed *8 3^ = 8, and on a steam- 
powered typewsnter you coald roll the 
paper back a bit. Neither is possible on 
•creen, so you use the up'^rrow. 

Now, if ill this com«s back correct 
itorei the typesetter, 1 think we hava perma- 
nent! y licked the problem. And AA listings 



Some Axnstradt Actitj^a 
Type -in guidelines 

One daunting task confronting all type-in 
freaks is that of deciphering listirigg. 

Tq make matters simpler for the typist 
- who is probably not an Bxpert pro- 
grarrtmer - we have set out a few pointers 
on style that we would like you to follow if 
you plan to send a type-in listing to 
Amstrad Action. Setting out your listingrs m 
this way will give you more of a chance of 
scoing your masterpiece on Oiie of thtjse 
pages. 

1 Most important of all. is sensible use 
of variable names or ielters. 
DO 

use lower-case for variable names, 
rather than capitals 

use short but modningful vanabld 
names 

use integer variables (for example, ii%) 
it you want to speed up execution time 
DONT 

K u«e letters that can be confused with 
numbetis. Especially avoid the smal! letter 



in futiire will be much cleaner in ap^ 
pcaranco than was possible an the dot- 
matriK printer. 

• We neglected to mention in the Simon 
listing (November Type-ins) that il was for 
the 684 and 6128 only. Apolo^es to any 
frustrated 494 users- 

• The OICO program was correct as listed 
(dolober), but dozens of readers wrote or 
rang with problems The most common 
mistake wa$ conifusing the number T with 
a lower-case T used ^^ a variable name 
around line 330 - our now style guide wil) 
avoid this in future. Data atatements had 
other pitfalls: typing fuUstopa instead of 
commas or ntimbers larger than 255. 



'1' or capital T and both small o' and 
capital O' Even *B' can look like 'S" on 
some printers. 

K use variable names identical to com 
matvd words (you can't) 

Z it IS very useful to have adequate 
REM statements in the listing. FoT one thing, 
it makes it easier For human beings to read. 
Si)f months later someone with a pile of 
tapes can lemember wliai any one is about 
and where to and the AA artide about it. 
DO 

■ pur the program name, source and di)tf 
at the beginning of the program 

put a REM statement before every sub 
routine to outline its purpose 
DON'T 

X go mad puiiuvg REMs after every line 
X put your life story in REM Statements 

3 Avoid long miilii-siaieinenr line^i 
They are diTficult to ioilow. and just mvite 
typing errors. $hort lines make debugging 
easier too: 'Error in line 432* is only half 
helphU if line 432 is half a mile long, 

DO 
.. spill up eompJicated mathematical 

10UIUl«B 

<• keep lines short 40 characters is a 
good maximum 
DON'T 

K have long lines of DATA statements 
(keep 'em short) 

-< put command words and REM state- 
ments on the same line 

4 Structure your programs - divide 
them into sensible procodures. This makes 
it easier for us to foUov/. easier for you to 
debug, and in the long run will develop 
your pMtgranuning skills. 

And need we say ... If you send us 
anything, please make sure your name and 
address (in hunun-readable formi) is on 
every single piece, especially the label of 
the cassette or disk. And keep a copy, 



AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1^36 33 



SERIOUS SOFTWARE 



yook LOfmsr ooeswN ^A)S6J6R6D. 



PROBLEM ATTIC 



Jhh montfi the Attic is flooded: with pleas, requests, 
death tHreflts and blackmail notes for hel^ with 
cassette loading. We'll deal with the moln body ihh 
month, bul you will have to wait 30 days for the rest 
of the story. 

Messages, messages - the errorreows type 

Cassoiic users sec those familiar read or write error messages 
laihsr too fiequeniiy. Message pops up, system crashes. All 
very ;i\fiirieit;itg, Here is ai\ ar^alysis of these errors wticn they 
occur and why, 

Read Evror a: Tht: dat^i bit read waa too long. This occuirg if 
the cassette is halted during lOfidiTig or qaTaloguing. [t may even 
happen .f there is a lot of wgw. {'Wow" aounds like what it 
inedLiia; tJie lape motor tunning at ai\ uneven speed.) 

Read Error b^ There has been a CEC (cyclic redundancy 
check) fail. This is the moat common ottlie errors and can occur 
tf there ;s dust or a defeci on the lape surface. 

Read Error d: 1 tried desperately to attain this error 
message, hui failed lO do so. Tt indicatee that the block read waa 
[oD iong. The orily way to qui ihia error, it seems, ia to program 
it deliberately. 

Wi'ite En^or a; 7h« write frequency is aet too high. This 
again can only be piogrammed intentionally- So you slioiiidn't 
ever encounter this aitd the previoos erioi message. 








.4^ 



'We have — but don4 want 

Read errors can be caused by dirty tape heads or pinch rollers 
- this could lie mth any tape deck. In i^riLSirad 664 and 3138 
r^achincs, the problem could be with improper setting of 
volume and tone controls. Owners of the 464 don't have this 
problem as these levels are preset. 

Tout recording heads could do with a good clean fairly 
■often, - especially if you frequently use low-grade casscttOE- The 
beat way is with cotton buds dipped in methylated spirits [or 
similar). Definitely do not use abrasive detergents or sharp 
objects Ensure that the head is dry when you finish. 

As well as the head, the pinch roJlGr [nEually rubber, to 



i. 



one side of the mechanism) 
should bo given the treatment, 
llsi nq a " cleaj^mg tape' , which you 
can buy from a hi-fi shop, will give 
the best rcsuits. Dirty pinch rollers 
cnn be the cause of many a problem: 
they can malre the tape speed vary qx, 
even worse . they can eat o r crease your tape . 

One final step to improve the performance 
of your ca&sette deck is to ahgn the tape head 

the asrcvwth angle. Azimuth, from Latin, meana 
degrees qf arc abovi? the hon'zontar. In the case of ^["^ 
cassette players, it means the angle of the head relative ^^ 
to the horizon - the magnetic tape uiside the cassette altelL 

There are VJirious cornmeicia] azimuth aligners on difi 
market, U you are considisiifig getting one of these package*) 
Interceptor and Global Software are but two of the man^ 
m^anufacturers, 

On the outside trying to get in? 

The ?S4 and 6 1 33 machjjies need an ewteriial cassette record*^ 
if tape programs are lo be loaded into memory. Naturally, ■>, 
new $et of problem* is likely to come into play. 1 

Posiiioning of the cassette deck and leads can be crucial fo 
saliefactoiy loading or saving, The recorder should not be Ux 
close to any magnetic field - such as the monitor. Likewise, lh< 
leads shouldn't run parallel to mains leads, or close to ma^grneo: 
fields. The reason is that liny impulses in the casaeite leads ca; 
easily be distorted, (And of coun&e tapes or disks should nevfe 
be placed on top of the monitor.) 

Whenever possible, use a lape deck that runs from mair^ 
electricity. Battery-operated decks are prone to Quctu3!in| 
power signals . which causes a degree of wow. 

Everyone's favorite now; tone and volume settings. (Men 
ones from my Speetrmn programrrung days.) Being the haxdes 
and the most annoying to set correctly, they aie the mO^ 
oominon cause of data loss. The volume should be set taii£ 
high. However, if it's too loud, distortion res nits - poor ^ 
Arnold will get an earache. The tone should be set betwsr 
three-quarters and full, giving a high (trebley) sound. 

If you go carefully through all these procedures and yc 
still have read/write problems, there is either somethmg wtok 
with your tapedeck or the software you are trying (o load ; 
fotilty (ie. the tape has been corrupted). 

KcKt month Amsti^d Acd&n will feature an ingenious listit 
from I Keneally of Exeter. His program actually checks di 
health of your tape drive - 'not for azimuth but for defects in tf 
mechanics.' Sounds intrealing, doesn't il? Well, 1 ean tell yf 
that it works it certainly does what it claims lo do. Enough, yt 
will have lo wait till neart i^ue. 



Firnnly in deep 

Having recently purchased the 
DDl firmware manual lo go willi 
the disk drive, I thought I would 
be able to make use of the 
routines in the CP/M rorn. After 
days of desperation, you are my 
laft hope. Please could you 
ditplain how ! should go abaui 
usmg the 'Read sedor', 'Formal 
track' and other BIOS jump- 
blocks? None of them seem to 
work I; 

RobiA Mathews 
Wokidgrham, Bcrksbite 



Toil may ive/jf /wine jumped ia i 
the dcop end with this oA' 
Howc^vcj, I am a^araing ye 
have Mil 3ssemhlei and a h, 
ksiowledgs of assembly tap 
gisAg^. t knovr of villous stun: 
blmgblocks mth the DDl Hni 
wsie msnaAt - the main » 
bemg that it ts wrong m cejtMi 
p/see*.' 

I'll use the 'Resd seao: 
expended BIOS conuirand as je 
example. Thi$ actuaUr ^<* 
jroa to read a physical sam 
hom a disk, and place the dv' 



34 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 



SERIOUS SOFTWARE 



yooR LOfTiesir ooesno/v A/vsweReD. 



PROBLEM ATTIC 



J 
7 



store (buff- 
er) of jfluur 
— choice. 

Using 
the legal (reco- 
mmended) method 
lot sccessiag (hesB 
extra cammsnds, yaa 
must load the HL register psir 
witii the sddsess Stat points to 
&e command number- 'Bead 



Next, a call to &BC3D4 (El Find 
Command} will retam, in the 
HL, the rautine address whila 
the C segistex contains the icm 
immh^i. The CP/M rom itsuaUy 
positions itself in slot nuntber 7. 

You may well have got this 
fer, only to End it iiasn 't worked 
correctly. The reason is that the 
CP/M rom is classed ss a fore- 
ground rom snd consequently 
has to have 129 (&8!) added to 
the conmiand namber. This 
means adding &81 to the 'Read 
sector' coimnand namJ?et, giv- 
ing a new value ofl3S or &B4. 

So far so good. We must 
nowr Etore the register contents 
in memory, as we shaU need 
them shortly. The rest is laiily 
simple. The re0sters must he 
set up as descrihed in the 
manual. 7^ is is 

foUovfed by s call to the correct 
rom address (using the EST 3 
isstructioR). 

The example below will 
losd the lirsl sector of tisck 
iato memory locatiojt &4000- 
The disk is assumed to be in 



Jwst a second? 

Is it passibli» /or a second diive 

to work on a 464 wirhoui the 

firsr? 

Cialg RtctEaby 

Newton Aycliffe, Durham 

On lirtt reading, your question 
sounded doubJe-datch. But now 
tve see whst yoa mean. Ajid the 
answer is: Afraid not, Craig. 
The reason is that the first drive 
also has an interface sttsched to 
it (which is why it costs more). 
This is what yoa have to plug 
into the back of your computer - 
it allows the computer to com- 
ntiUiii^te with the drive and thus 
pass informatioii to and fii>; not 
oniv fhaf_ i>STt of th^ CP(M 



Operating system is contained 
on the rotJi inside the interface. 

Poetkaify put 

Frustration is gieat, 
tension is high; 
if you can't help. 
Hear !'U die! 
Reference, of wjujse, 
to the firmware guide, 
I cannot think 
wburc; it may hide - 

is it av ailah TR 

on thia date? 

Please help me worlc 

my 61 28! 

Jaha Thompson 

Paisley 

For a pair of tenners (less a bob) 
Arrisoft (Brentwood) will gladly 
lob i^s book in the post for you. 



Multiple help! 

Is it possible to producse scrol- 
ling messages from right to left 
in Basic? 

Is there a gadge! out which 
wil5 convert Anr«trad monitors 



matter of changing the hyte 


WOTS, with a green monitor? 


held in the C register to allow 


Which iape-ta-disk lom 


rmding of CP/M or iSM disks. 


cartridge is the best to buy? 


ORG Mm 


^^^^^H 


t D Ml .coffl.TrSRd 


'^St ^^^^^B 


CAI 1 &rc:t4 




LO HL.sC'Srii? 




LO A X 




La (s^qrel ; A 




LO HL.8i4OT-;j 


t}U"^ffir tc lead sector date 


in E,0 


urive nuri^'^jr 


ID t' , » 


lr<it< 'miir;>«T 


LD C,&C1 


Sector nunti^r 


R£T 3, Store 


jtifflo to tc-v. address 


PfT 




DEFB Sfi4 




{■FHw mm 




C'ErE m 







ts It possiWe to save 
ptograms onto disk in data for- 
mat rather than system foimat^ 

Why do i Jose coniroJ when 
\ play grimes with two joysticks 
plugged in? 
SLaw 
Littleborou^li, Lanes 

Welh Mr Law. you do ask a 
tail order. Answermg your 
questions sequentially: 

Yes, we hope in the next 
issue to publish a type-in ex- 
plaining all. Arabic scraUmg, 
you might call it 

There are TV faners on the 
market: one frona DK'Tronics 
(£70), the other from Screens 
(£78). A colour picture will be 



colour monitor; green-screen 
users will be stuck in shades of 
greenf 

In our opinion the MuIMace 
n is number One. Watch om for 
next issae. we should have a 
comparative review of tape-to- 
disk hardware. " 

Quite simply, yes: either 
format. 

Sounds ss though the ti/vo 
joysticks are shorting one ano- 
ther out. Try using different joy- 
sticks. Otherwise yoa nmy hsve 
a problem with your joystick 
port. 



Bingo 

I lun a weekly bingo session, 
and was wrondering if you could 
write a short program to gene- 
rate a random, niixnber betiveen 
1 and 90. The numbers gen- 
etate^i should be printed on 
screen along with a count of 
nuntbeis called. 
D R Brown 
Iiaiiidon, Essex 

And no number should be 



called twice. Over to you, re- 
aders: a problem to ponder in 
your attics. We'll piiblfsA the 
best one next month. Have a 
Jocik ^( the' ncw^ style gvidetm&s 
printed ia the Type-ins p&ges. 

Rodiocicfivd Arnotd 

I would like to comment on Jdr T 
Davies" piotJlem in the Septem- 
ber issue concering radio m- 
tcference caused by Arnold. 

It is my conaidered opinion 
that the interference is caused 
by magnetic Tadiauon. For 
cxam,plo, if yoa lake ah ordi- 
nary calculator and pkee tt 
close to a potiabSe radio, Ihc; 



radio can Oien be tuned into the 
caloilator. Ptessing a buiEon (on 
ih« c^lcuUlor) causes a 
difftif eni-frequ^ncy note Cnois^) 
to be emitted from the radio. 

The only vsray to remove 
this inieteience would be to 
acreen and earth your Amslrad 
- not the most practical solution . 
How$v*T there is no need to 
worry as this radiation causes 
no harm. and. is around us at all 
times. 

Lea PhSlUps 
Rhondda, Mid'Clam organ 

Seeking Oasis 

1 am. writing this letJer in de- 
speration. TWO months ago, I 



Genius. My problem is that the 
program seems to have a bug. 
When assembling or disas&em- 
blmg to the primer, canrjage- 
retums and tiiiefi?cds arc occa- 
sionaHy missed. 

After writing to Oasis and 
stili not receiving an answer, I 
am sftick. Please help. 
MB Smith 
Bxidg«ii4, Sontlt Wal#s 

Unlortanately, Mr Smith, Oasis 
Soiiwurejust recently went bust. 
Ocean, which have comissionea 
Ossis to write sever^ 
progranis, is nncertain whether 
to continue support for Laser 
Genius. I'm afraid all you can do 
a i present is wait and see. 

Pa£«oil Qt college 

Hia'/ing lecenlly sti^rled college 
and A-level computer science, I 
find we need to leaxn Pascal. I 
own a 6128. Could you teU m« 
what versions of Pascal are 
available, and how much they 
cost? 

Keep up the good work at 



t 

futaHy arrives (iQ. I shall cerfain- 



Sclston, Notts 

Sight, JuJidn. her« are a few 
stiggestsoRs: 

Tiirba Pascaf 3.0 (CP/M 80) 
nt £57. m DE Psscal/MT^ df £50 
from Digital Research: pro 
Pascal Comptier by Prospero 
Software. 

In the September issue 
Andy Wilton reviewed r^c 
others: the P^scsl SO CP/M com- 
piler at £40 from Hisofl .md 
Oxford Pascal by Systems Soft 
ware (Oxford) Ltd. st £2B. • 



AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBEH 1986 35 



SERIOUS SOFTWARE 



t 



Welcome to this new secHon, Have you an 
astounding new hint to pass on? A trick 
youVe discovered Arnold can or can't do? 
Share your tips with the world. This is the 
place to send them. 



IF lESE n 3 TO ^m xSET n END 
IF 3 IVa ^ RESE 1 END 

In plain English the Si?! line says, ^tf| 
marker n is reset then put object 3 
locatioit nmnber deOned by RND i (wherel 
xisa. nuntloer sqasl tp ox less tlLan Oie totall 
number of locations) and ttuen set insxk@i| 
it'. Tne sesond line cheeks ttiat oij&cl 3 ] 
not iinished up in locatiDn (liinbo room}^ : 
so majker n is reset so that line 1 will 
executed again. 
Miclc EUIck 
fiadlsea, BxiEtol 

It is not possil^le to have two or more 
greatei-lhan {>} or less-t^tan {<} sigits 

one comiKiand line using GACl 
Smorff The WArlock 
S,ccring1an, Lanes 



DazzUns border 



Socket to me, said the 
Spectrum to the Amstrad 

This little hBidware vridgat allows you to 
use siie output troin a Spectruirt and display 
it on an Ainstrad nvonitor. Follow the in- 
structions carefiilly and yoii should have no 

First, go and buy a six-pin DIN socket 
(siniilar to Qie one picitired in youT 
maniial), and a couple of resistors - 100 
ohms and 220 ohms will do. Connect vviie 
[rom the 'Sigrial oui' of the Specliura to the 
"Signal "jn" (or aerial soclfetj of the television 
set< ther. cut ofl the 'Aerial in' socket and 
cajrry out the foliowing steps; 
1 . Remove centre pin (6) . 
S. Link pins 1 and 3, using ona tail of the 
lOQ-ohm resistor, keeping the -write close to 
the pliagtic, 

3- Push the free end of this resistor ttirougti 
the hole in pin 4. 




4- Wire the g20-olmi resistor across pins 2 
and 4. 


Heie is a quickie for yon: 


5. Connect the core of coasia.1 cable to 

pin 4: 

E, Cormetjt the ahicIdirLg to pin S. 

Bryan D Azchez 

Kifkcald^ 


If FCF --FS LO 7g OUT &7F00.t 
le >JEXT z.GQTD -fl 

Blast the bankman 



Sorting colours on the Grofpael 

When Uie Grafpad was first released, re- 
views said, "Good piece of hardware, but 
no indication of how to lise your pichires in 
your own program,' 

III faci, this is very siinple. When 
saved, your picture is 17k long and called 
'ffl&name.pic'. One thing to note, however, 
is that the deiault colour CI on the Orafpad 
and the colour in Ink on the Amstrad are 
not ideiiticBJ. I have written a short 
progiam thai will allow you to load a 
Grafpad picture using the conecl colours. 

} REM ftwSlfSC Att-Dn Dec8B 
■\^ HOOF 1 :nk ^,^:30fiC;E« 
2<^ LOAD" FiLENAKE. PIC 
3^ WHILE I'JKEYS--'- WE^JJi 

Mick Ellick 
Nails«a, Bristol 



Tofe told 

It is tiOKf oSiCial^, Fl<m\ Amstrad hssdquar- 
ters comes this astounding piece of 
mformstiori: 

Tour 464- is known as Arnold (yes, I 
know that is common knowlege). The rare 
6fi4 breed are called IDlOTs {Insert Disc 
instead Of Tape J, and the joUy oM 6 l£Ss tire 
called BIG OIOTs (I'm sitre you can wrork 
that oite our for yourselves}. 
An Amstrad OfHclaJ 
Scent w9od, £&?ex 



G>4C busters 

Fairly simple adventures can be rnade dif- 
ferent each time (he game is played by 
putting certain objects in randomly ielec- 
ted locations. This can be done with GAC 
(Grsphic Advennire Creetor). This 
example deals with object number S: 

Select the 'object' option and define as 
uaual, placing in any location. In th& 'high 
pricdty' mode insert the following lines: 



After several sleepless idghts, 1 have Finall; 
found a way of incorporating the Baiikmani 
3ger routine into your Basic hsting. 
aifoids the need to load Bsitkmsmaffe 
before nitming' your own piogram- 

Jast insert the short routine soniewhsiti 
into your own listing: 

^G& GCSUR 139 

11® ' rest of your' FJrogr^B 

120 Ef,D 

130 ' bsfifc user rcLiti.'^e 

140 x-HI«E«-1G:rtEt^0RY *-1 

1513 RESTORE 22^ 

1§9 rOH y-x 7X1 x*15 

17Q SEAO aS POKE y . VAL ( "i'+aS) 

13(3 NtXT a1t-Ci:.CAH. K.iail 

19^ f.t^OftY j(*1&:x-HinE'« &624 

2(3^ KEiORV js-liLOAD " sank ^ar. bin" x| 

210 CAL- x;:EAHKOP£H,e RETURN 

220 DATA <3E FF.CD.1&.B9 EB.r'D.66 

3 30 PATA 311.00. eE . 3a . ? 3 . 23. . 7 2 . C3 

f Andrews 

(by telephone) 



Printer dump for Scre&n Deslgnt 

I encJos? a poke that eaiables scr&erJ 
drawn by Amsoft's Screen P&sigmer to 
dumped to a printer iising any scieer 
dump package (Tascopy is my preferencejj 
FoUovr this procedure: 

1. Run Tsscopy(oi equivalent) 

2. Run the program below 

3. Follow prompt?, and insert cassette wid 

The picture will load a» normal, 
compiedon. a copy wiU be dumped lo it 
piintei. 

1 ' A'flStrad Action D^CBG 
Ifl ' 'JasssLlt^ 0wn3^s only 
29 HEM^flY 1224/:W0i 1 
%^ fni^T ■U££RTCASSrrTE-PRESSA<i 
40 LOAD '-iKJKE 124^3 2SS CALL Ml* 
£0 (COPY 

6i^ ' TASCOPY us«6 th1« ccftivsrd 
7p ' CO duqp £ sc<'flen to the print* 

Pttef Walkl»11 
X^tqchora, Fife 



3B AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 




XXX XXX xxxxxxx 
XXX XX.^AXXXXXX 
XXX XXX XXX XXX 
XXX XXX XXX XXX 
XXX XXX X XXX XXX 
XXXXXXX XXX XXX 
XXXXXXXXXX XXX 
XXX XXXXXXX 




# 



.:ev up mir engine and take to the skies to 
saveyoo^ountry. Hunl down the enemy 
and build uj^^oar log of kills as you rise 
ttffougt) the rmk$ to the elite of the RAF, 



/ 



AmsfradCPC 


£9M (disk from AmsoH) 


Atari XVX€ 


£9.95 tape. £12.95 disk 


Atari ST 


£24M 


Commoitore 64 


£9.95 tape, £12.95 disk 


I^SX 


£9.95 tape 



Spectrum 48KfmK £3.95 



^if^^^SRHHI^^^^ 



m 






A COLOUR TV FOR £69.95! 

indVAT 

FACT NOT FICTION, THANKS TO SCREENS ENGINEERS 
AMSTRAD COLOUR MONITOR OWNERS CAN HAVE A TOP 
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Transfer ANY program to disc t^r laf« at the 

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Fully avitomatLc saving of ANY progfam onto 

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Freeze ANY game at any point, save it, ancf 

restore it lat^r 
Menu driven with prompts artd single character 

Caminands 
User friendly and fully error trapped 
Consists of hardware only no additional 

software required 




* FEATURES; *r 

* Internal Bk Rom ar^d Sk Ram 

* Very powerful and efficient, compressir>g 

to use MINIMUM space on your disc or 
tape 

* Tfirough connector for adding other peripherals 

* FAST. SLOW t TURBO speetl options when 

saving to tape. 

* Handles expansion Roms and all paging modes 

* Can be used without disc interface (CPC 464) 

* Otspley colours can now be set up as r>equired. 
' The display window size can be set up to suit 

any program 



The Most RevolutionBry and Exciting Poripheral for 
all Amstrad CPC464, CPC664 and CPC6128 Owners. 

*The Mirage fmager must be the smsrtest peripheral yet'Amstrad User. 
"Very simple to use and works every time '^ Amstrad Action 



In case of difficulty order directly from: 

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{61 2B owners add £4.95 for busextender lead 








38 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1&86 



DISCOUNT SOFTWARE 
3 STATION CRESCENT • WESTCOMBE PARK 
BLACKHEATH-SE3 7ER 
Access orders/en quIrJes lei: 01-305-0521 

ALL PRICeS INCLUDE FHil^ Mi7 DkUVi^HY !iV THE U.K. ONLY. PiBASEADD 
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Newtlltes arriving every day, please ring for details. 



haHlli KuiluCo, 


.H.*l 


Il.«9 


Kunal-'vM«tit^' 


,.,Jl»S 


f.»! 


eitwiuwii, 


..».»J 


7M 


rAwliWiighftii 


A4^ 


T.ift 


Jatt. nmhtlfiMt 


....All 


T.i* 


v™ciui. „ 


„JltJ 


Tit 


mritv*.. 


_.At( 


T.«6 


T'hWiinil. . 


.tt«S 


tlM 


imttttaii. 


.,..MS 


rM 


omthK.,...,. 


.,..««» 


T.D* 


g.OnctiCiiaM 


....MS 


T.» 


JVettriawi..., 


,.. S.M 


T.SR 


I>ilc*«l UKJoh.... 

Hhmwil.... 


....MS 


T.M 


...tM 


T.i* 


^biMilonlL 


...ILW 


T.W* 


iUMlllFMHhUAIH,,,..,. 


,.,1,H 


T.M 


T4IUlMl*h...un,„»„„„ 


,..f.» 


T.M 


TAbn* ~. ...... 


....J.H 


T.K 


S«ei»Mt i..-:........ 


...,.«.« 


r.M 


IfMhol Itmn. . .., 


..i.ga 


T.M 


nelurntoFAP,,,,.^,,.,,. 


.,.,i,» 


-,H 


»m4riKiRI&.. 


„i.» 


S.lt 


Ht>dM«in. 


....«.9d 


Lti 


ruiHnkL 


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satDi^AEirTnLEi TtuTuiEiVJMjjaLm tHrntJH niTiHr mAMrmartm ca/natanttt 

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PRIORITY OHDER FORM F^ 

Please niah me for my: Com modore &4 G 

Spectrum O BBC B D Anistrad CPC D 

WINTER WONDERLAND «7,950 

Apache Gold except BBC) JCT.SS D 

Graphic Adventnr. Creator { '5S^|p;lg 
J enclose chequc/PO or please acc&pt nay credit 

card No, -- - 

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Address 




A MISSION YOU 




SFECTHUM 



imagine Software 1 1984) Limfted 

6 Central Street Manchester M 2 5NS 

Tel:061 834 3939 Telex: 66997 7 



SERIOUS SOFTWARE 



Tape 



to disk with a touch of con 



trol 



Discovery Plus is a revamp of Siien's original Uip^-to-disk 
Discovery There have been vast improvements concerning 
ease- of use, presentation and general perfomwinje of the 
aoftware, 

Included on the disk are Tape Disk', which was previously 
eold oil its Qwn as a headerle&s copier, 'Tape Disk \\ a. 
revolutionary mmlh-copier program, and Splock Trans', which 
deals with the DJL Speedlock loaders (a protection system u^ed 
by aome aollware hoy-seg). 

The original Discovery has also be^n put on the dLsk. We 
reviewed this in the February issue; suffice to say that Discov- 
ery transfers ordinary block -s^ved pragxamB from cassette to 
disk. It will rename or relocate the files to make them compat- 
ible with ihe disk operating system. 

Siren's new imp roved Speedlock transfer program (soimds 
like a conunereiaJ for aoap powder), called 'Splock Trans', w.iE. 
need approximately 52k of free disk space, as ic has been 
configured to handle even the longest of programs. This routine 
aeka for a name under which to save the program and proceeds 
to load the game as normal. Once loaded, the di^k motor wiE 
start up and, hey presto, it's on disk - magic. After the transfer 
has been completed, the game will start normally. 

For thoso awkward headeriess files on cassette - another 
conunoTt lona. of protection - 'Tape Disk' ia available to transfer 
them to disk. However, they will not ntn independently; they 
must be run from within the 'Tape Disk' prHsgrom, which is 
designed to discourage piracy. 



Tape Disk T is a most amazing piece of programming. It 
traafife™ software to disk; at Ihe touch of the Control key. The 
program loads and runs the game aa normal; as soon you proas 
Control, the game is on disk. It is similar in principle lo the 
various hardware devices on the market - such aa Mtiltilace U 
by Romantic Robot or the Mir^g^f^ Imagcr. 

It has its luTutations obviously. Although many cassette 
software titles are easily transferred especially those with 
loading music - 'Tape Disk 1' needs a oompletiely free com- 
pgtisr: all expansion Toms and interfaces must be removed {willi 
the exception of the disk mterface, of course). Programs saved 
using this method need the onginal 'Tape Dak 1' program 
present on the same disk. Furthermore, whatever was saved on 
a 464 will work onjy On a 464, what was saved on a 664 will run 
only on a 664 and so on. 

Discovery Plus musf be the most advanced, and probably 
the most e&icient, tape-to-disk transfer utility to date. You do 
pay for the privilege, though: £13 is nothing to sneese at. 

It must be noted that this progrann takes steps against 
piracy - particularly that the Discovery file must always be 
present on the disk. 



GOOD NEWS 

► Will transfer lots Df 
programs. 

P- Easy to use and und&rstaod. 

> Takes steps aiiainEl pkstv 


BAD NEWS 

^ Mortgage your A mstrad, 
1^ Can't cdpv everifthing. 



s 

n 
o 



3 

a 

vt 

vt 

o 

t 



(p 



t*t 



to 

D 

a 



Manage yovr 



disks with delight 



Siren has come up with another marvellous piece of software. 
This is a package to give the disk user a wide range of 
'housekeeping' utilities. 

The thing thai -immediately strikes you with this product is 
Ihe new packaging and layout in general - a much more 
professional touch. This approach is continued with Ihe 
program's menu systems: all prompts are very user-friendly, 
and confirmatory messages appear at appropriate stages. 

On loading Hindy Man, you are presented with a fairly 
impressive hat of opdons. Some very original and technically 
brilliant routines are available. These include a 203k formatter, 
an option to save the entile contents of a disk to cassette, and a 
very aseful search roattne for finding ihose Ascii messages on 
disk. 

One ophon causes an eight-page manual about HAXidy M^i\ 
to bo dumped to the printer. It's all very well if you have a 
printer > but what about those without? Not io worry; another 
option lets you read on-screen instructions for any routii^e. 

The 'Superform' routine has all tho fan^ties lor formatting 
the usual CP/M, data and IBM disks. The fun starts, though, when 
you are given the extra choice Of 'Sup 202' and 'Sup208'- These 
give 202k and 209k free disk space • about 24k more than 
standard formats. They work by wrlfiiig a file in ordinary format 
onto the disk; when executed it gives you all thai extra disk 
memory to u&e. It i$ ev^n possible to use these formats under 
CF/M, a$ several COM files have been supplied - great stuff. 

Suppose you wish to tianafer Files from a data-formatted 
disk onto your new 'Sup' formatted disk. A program entitled 
'Trans File' will do the job for you. 'Trans File' can cope only 
with program lengths of 3@k or le^ - so unfortunately you are 
stuck UTiless you are in the know. 

'Disk Release' has two options. One allows you to 'release 
the disk' while the other 'restores the disk'. Releasing a disk 
will cause its contents to be wiirten to cassette. You are 
prompted for a disk name as well as the date (very handy, as 
these are quite easily forgotten). The data will be written at ^XiQ 
band in 4.^ blocks. Therefore at least 30 minutes of tape will be 



required, as ther« can be up to 40 blocks, each taking 25 
seconds to save. 

Restoring a disk will require an unformatted disk, or a disk 
whose contents you do not mmd being over-written. I^e 
process is the exact reverse for releasing a disk. Those two 
options sre eitcellent, especially when disk space is at a 
premium. 

Searching a disk for a particular siring (even control 
characters from to 31) or a group of hex numbers couldn't be 
easier than with Disk Search'. Enter the string you wish to find, 
and the program will search each track. When it locates the 
string. Disk Search will enter its edit mode, allowing you to alter 
the contents of the sector being displayed. Thti search can be 
continxicdi by pressing a itunction key. A maximum of 25 Asdi 
characters or 10 hex numbers maybe searched for - more than 
enough for most purposes. 

Pile Search is a small offshoot of Disk Search. With this 
option, you can eiiter a filename and be presented with a hex 
di^mp of the first sector of the fUe, ready to edit. You can easily 
step on to following sectors. 

Menu Maker' is the final program iri the H^mdy Man suite. 
This copies the Qle *Menu' onto your disk. Run the program lo 
^ee its effect- It is actually a disk tile manager, which allows 
'selected' files to be displayed, giving the option to load or j:un 
any of them. 

Using 'Select' and 'Unselect' is handy :f you select all loader 
files, and unselect all other subsidiary files. In ihis way, every 
time you run 'Menu', there is no confusion about which files can 
be run. 

Handy Mtm do^ take the drudgery out of disk 
management. 



G NEWS 

►- Very us«r-frfendly. 

P' Disk IWflnagm»[itbeconitS9 

¥■ Afliazing new 2D8l( format, 
^ Surdi option is <ir<i¥f«at 


BAD NEWS 

► 'Trans file' does not copy 
fiks Jatfisr flwn 3Sk. 



AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 41 



BOOKS 



AMSTBADS AND ,^_„_, 

bv Patrick Bftll Sigma Ftess p t™ 

ISBN i-SBOSB-osa-a 



77:v^;?^:SS^Sn?i^ 



'_'.'.'.*-■. 






"^wmm 



■.w:'>:r»:v»yyA^»»:- 



'■'■'. ■.'■v.'.*. 'I'Xv. 



***>*> *h ■ 



>?; 



Not being very mtere^ted in all the newspaper hype about 
ardflcial inieliigence. my initial reaction was to snub this book. 
However after $iitm9r down for several hours, with Gie ijisention 
of merely scanning the pages, 1 fovmd mysell deepJy engrossed 
in the subject raaiter. 

Patrick Hall certainly has a knack for keeping the text lively 
and flowing, I caught my§clf giggling at various stagos 
amusing results can happen when using computers for this 
purpose. 

The book starts each chapter witii a brief history of Al 
during a certain period in its development. Following Ms is a 
program for the reader to type in. - it u$uaj}y has some 
relevance to (he text before hand. 

Starting from the beginning, Mr Hall Introduces us to A! 
with a program that composes music - and which more 
gen.e rally is- capable of simpit; creativity. This is illustrated by 
Ode, a simple program that generates verse in rhyming 
couplets - the output can be a little short of hi^anou? 

Each program is dl^arly written, with every subroutine 
distinctly iabellad. The 'commentaTy' on the routine? is <|Uiie 
xmbeiievable: practically every line is deah with $epajately> 
giving detailed desoripiions on what !ask they perform. 

During the Second World War, computers were used for 
breaking codes; eventually from these hmnijlo beginnings rose 
the iransiators. These programa attempted to trartstete one 
language to another, Unfortunately all kinds of problems crept 
in here, as demonstrated by a program ttiat iranslates German 
into uproarious English.. 

Many such topics are discussed in Amstrads and ArtiUdil 
kitcMigence, with practical prcgiams that are substantial pro- 
ductons of landmarks in Al, Some are actiial recreations of 
great developments witin this field. 

If you fancy a good relaxing read qn a topic on the frontier 
of today's technology, without anything too technical, then this is 
a must. 1 lusi wish there had been more to tlte book - my desire 
for knowledge had not been quenched, The history side of 
things was rather riished. with program lisitngs and explanation 
taking up seventy pe r cent of the text. 



GOOD NEWS 


BAD NEWS 


> Enjoyabb reading. 

► EMceUent dcmanstration 


► Perhaps too Utile 
tnfofinatJon. 


programs. 

1^ NDthingitchmcal. 


^ Tasfliany listings. 



ADVANCED AWISTRAD BASIC 

fy I« P^cl^d Melbo™ Hcu»e p*P*rba«k £12.95 
BBM 0-861 $1-202-7 



m 




Has Melbourne HouBe gone mad? How can a publisher have the 
audacity to charge £13 for such a book? Some of this author's 
previous efforis from the same press have been almost twice as 
Ihick for hardly half the price. 

Apart from that outbtirsl, 1 have only praise for this 
publication, [t is writter by a very talented man, Joe Pritchard's 
previous book. Ready-made Mii<simte-Langusige Rouimes ioi 

42 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 



f/ie Amsti^d, was one of ray fiavorites, and most certainly helps 
me with my assembly-language programing. 

Advanced Amstrad Basse asaumee you have a fairlil 
thorough kn«?w^edge of Basic, with a minimum amount 
assembler - which is only lo be e>epected, otherwise it would 
have a different titlel 

Chapter 1 starts wifli graphics and animation. There 
clear listings, showing you how to print characters of any si^e . 
any angle - even muftiogloured. Each roudne is clearly 
plained, encouraging the reader to take tlie buH by its ho£ 
and alter the programs lo Suit his or her requirements. 

r was impressed with the graphics routines, which m^d^ 
use of 'txansfonnations'. A shape can be transformed bi 
carrying out mathematical operations on it. Here matrices cam\ 
into play - 1 always wondered, while sUving away at my mall 
homework, what use they would be in the real world. The boo 
goes into just enough detail, giving plently of short routine 
without putting (he reader to sleep. 

Sound is the following tf\apter; thia covers all the sounf 
commands available to the user under Basic. Especially dE 
tailed are the sections covering tone CENT) and volume (EN'. 
envelopes. There is a section on playing music under interruj 
using the ON SQ instniction. It is a pity this was not covered 
greater detail - even a small section on how to produce 
desired effect vis machine-code would not have gone amiss. 

Mr Pritcihard has steered well away from generating sounj 
using machine-code. The reason for this is that Basic gives yc 
30 much control over the sound chip: even producing a 
bu2zing noise in machine-oode is a very tedious and drawn^jn 
process. 

There is a useful section in the book that shows how. wher 
and why Basic lines, variables, strings and so on arc stored 
iriemotY. By poldiig the appropriate values into the correij 
memory location, Basic programs can be altered dtiting 
time - it's all detailed in iJie book if you care to discover 
Included is an explanation on how to create faster-rurmmg Ba^ 
programs; this entails integer variables, multi-statement line 
and removing R£M hnes. 

Directly following is a large ehapier devoted to e^l 
and using RSX routines (resideivL system extensions - be 
commands). Using this system, variables can easily be pass 
(o machine<;ode routiries. There are a number of inteTesti 
programs for the user to [ype in and modify, including 
enltanced catalogue, a piiuse facility and even a routine 
inspect data from aity roms you may happen to own - aU 
used via RSXs and should really get you to grips with the 
and control of them. 

You are taken on a guided tour of the screen, with gc 
ej^aiTsples on manipulating it. It ia about time Someone made] 
decent attempt at unveiling the mysteries or rather complexity 
of the screen. A lot of effort has gone into this tiny 
infoimalive chapter - included are notes on the CRTC (cathodi 
ray tube controller) and I he registers, what they do and wf"! 
happens when you alter their contents. 

The final section in Hie book is programming tips, Not onl 
ia information provided for tidying and struclurmg yo( 
programs, but hints on error-checking, debbuging and cleii 
use of command words are also thrown in, One partioilar 
good aiea covered v/aa cassette systems and ways of elirai 
ing loading or saving errors - there doesn't seem to be a tn^ 
passed by. 

All in all, a very well writtenj eaEy-to-follow and enjoyah 
book. The effort the author has taken to pal; across idea^ 
fsxc&ptional. rm sure thai after reading it many of you will 
only too eager to jump into lower-level prograiruning la 
guagos. Thoroughly recommendedl 



GDQD NEWS 

^ Weil wrktsn-Qasy to 

lollow. 

^ Gobs into detail on obscure 

subjects 

^ Will develop ^dli 

prDgramminy skill no eiul. 



DAD 



NEWS 



^ Fiir Tqq expensive. 



SIREN SOFTWARE 



MASTER D!SC'"NeW 

The only diak ulilit/ pad^age you will ever ne^d, 

this program really does it alL IMAGE ■ make 

backups of your disks {inc, funny formats, etc) 

DIRECTORY EDITOR ■ unerase files, show 

hidden files, secures files etc. 

SPEEDFORM - formal your disks lightning fast. 

SECTOR EDITOR - eorrpt&te sector editor, 

DEPROTECTOR - deprotect a Basic program, 

DISK HEADER - display slarl, length, type, etc o( 

files, 

TAP E HEADER ■ as for disk header, but for tape, 

TRANSFILE - transfer individual fifes from disk lo 

tape or disk to disk, l*j 

D ISKMAP - shows how files are stored on di&k, 

TYPE STYLE - display on scre&n or prirvter any 

ASCII file, 

DUMPFILE - display Hex^ASCIl format for contents 

of a file. 

DISK 'Speed up your disk drive by up to 20%. 

Thisdiskdoesitain 

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SERIOUS SOFTWARE 



Last monlh we saw how we caji make o«r initructicnw to Arnold 
conditional - how we can teU him to do O^^ task or another 
dep^ttding on circumstances. To do This we ti*^ the commajiiclB 
IF, THEN aitd EISE, which aie used like this: 

3p IF ;ji.g THF*. PBIMT "V*,.* car ' t divide oy zero" 
ELSt PR^JKT a:" dvj-td-d tv ■ bi* #ri«"rtH "..i/h 

When Arnold comos to a line tike llus he works out whether the 
condition - 'b^O* in this example - is true or faise. If the 
vartablo 'b' has the value zero then Arnold obeys the FRMT 
command between THEN and ELSE, but i! "b' has any value 
othei than zero he'il obey the PRINT after ELSE instead. 

Conditions like that 'b = 0" are the heart of [F THEN-ELSE 
lines , but ihai's not all they're good for. The commands WHILE 
and WEWD also use conditions. 



WHILE-WEND LOOPS 



Let's look a: a simple program to move ;i square around tlie 
screen. It's very much like some that we saw earlier on tn AB. 
when we were looking at vaji^abtes and expresaioiu. 

T? MODE 1 

20 fOn B-.17{] TO {J STFF \^ 

JP CLSnOVt 310. a 

&0 DRAW 330, a '20 

7a DI^W 31@.« 
80 NEXT a 

This draws a small square, drifting down the screen till it 
reaches the foonom. That 'STEP -10* tells Arnold to reduce the 
loop variable "a" by 10 every lime he runs through the loop, 
until 'a' goes below the second operand of the FOR conunartd - 
zero, m this case. 

Now that's all very well, but it's not quite the ^^ct I'm after. 
Really 1 want the square to gain speed as x\ moves down the 
screen, so that it looks as if it's falling. !n other words I want it to 
move down by a greater amounteach time through the loop, 
rather than the 10 units fixed by the STEP size. 

There's nothing soo difficult about getimg the square to 
gain speed. Edit lines 20 and 80 to look like \hx»: 

t^ bm b-4J TC 60 STEP & 

8^ M£X7 o 

Now add these new lines, and then try the program out: 

This does the job^ up to a pomt. The square certainiy loolcs a lot 
more as if it's falling, but unfortunately it docjn't get as far as the 
bottom ot the screen. The problem is, there's no easy way to 
work out what FOR or STEP operands will get the square just to 
the bottom of the screen. 

When we had the original hstuig it was simple. The loop 
vanable 'a,' rcpresontod the height of the square above the 
bottom edge of the screen. We could use the second ope rand of 
the FOR command to stop the loop (and thus ihc' square) at some 
particular value of the loop variable: some particukr height 
above the bottom edge, m other words^ With ttie second 
operand of FOR set to zero, the square kept on moving down 
until it was just about to go off the bottom edge. 

Now, however, the loop variable is 'h\ Hus represents the 
Amount by which the square moves down each time - its 
downward speed, in other words, We can only use the second 
operand of FOR to limit the maximum value of 'b', so we ean*t 
tell Arnold that way the height v/& want to stop at; just the speed 
wo want to stop at. Either we work out how fast the square's 
going to be moving when it hits bottom (and who wants to do 
that?) or we spend five minutes trying different FOR ajnd STEP 
operands 



A BETTER WAY 



If neither of those two solutions appeal to you, don't worry - 
there's a better and simpler way. Edit lines 20 and 80 so that the 

46 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 



Absolute 



Looping the loop this month; 
Basic novices, wend your way 
in Andy Wilton's crash course 



whole listing looks like this: 



b-t!.»ft 



13 


muf 1 




15 


a-370 




2-3 


•.?-7. unu E 


Jl<-OjZ 


33 


as MOVE 


3t0 a 


40 


DRAW 33<P 


t1 


SJJ 


on-i^w im 


a*20 


6? 


ORAW 310 


ti*?ii 


7P 


DRAy 310. 


a 


75 


a-a-b 




8P 


jfcFND 





If you run this you should Eind It behaves exactly the same as 
did before the alterations. En other words lines 20 and 80 form 
loop which sets "b' Co 0, adds 3 to 'b' for each time through thi 
loop and then slops when "b' goes over 50. 

IT you look at line 20, you'll see that it breaks down inti 
three separate commands. The first and last of these ar^ 
familiar: 'b-0 sea 'b' lo while 'b = b + 3' adds S to 'b'. Th 
means that 'WHILE b-^ =^50" and the WENP' in line 60 form tii 
loop, and slop it when "b' goes over SO. 

From tins you should be able to see That WHILE and WE 
aie riather simpler than FOR and NEXT. TATflLE-WZND loo 
don't h&vs loop variables: in the above example, 'b' is j 
different from any other variable. The only thing WHILE-W 
loops do have is a condir.on: 'b-. = 50", in thkcaae. 

Just as with IF-THEN-ELSE, this condition determines whi 
of two things Arnold does. If 'b' is less than or equal to 50 th 
the condition is true, and Arnold repeats the loop. If 'b 
greater than SO, however, ihe condition is ^Ise and Amol 
stops repeating the loop. 

This stiU doesn't solve our problem after all, it only d 
what our program already did with FOR and NEXT. We c 
soon change that, though. II you remember, our problem wil 
FOR was that you could Umit only the loop variable *b% and 
wanted lo limit the height a" instead. There's no such probiei 
with WHII£, There's nothing special about any of th^ variabli 
as far as WHILE is concerned , 

At the momL^ni Ihe WH]L£ condition )usl tests for 'b' go; 
over 50, but it could just, as easily test for i^ything you can wr, 
a condition to test for- if we change line a> to 

tilAn Arnold will carry on looping until '^a' is less than zero, 1 
means thai Arnold wiU stop repeating the loop only when 
square is about to go off the bottom Of the screen - and thai I 
just what we were alter. 



WHILE-WEND vs FOR-NEXT 



We now know two diHerent sets of looping commands, Le^ 
compare what they do. 

In a FOR-NEXT loop, Arnold sets a variable to some Start 
value. Each time he repeats the loop he adds a fuced numberj 
th€ step size to this variable. He stops repeating the loop or 
the variable goes over some given upper limit. 

In a WHILE-WEND loop, things are much simpler. Arne 
doesn't set or add to any variables, unless you give 
separate commands telling him to. He just keeps repeating 
loop, and does nothing else. He stops repeating the loop wli 
the WHILE condition atops being true. 



SERIOUS SOFTWARE 



To sum up, FOR-NEXT IfjQps are more ccmplicated and do 
a lot more work for you. K you want a variable wJiich inc; (base's 
(or decreases) by a fiKed amoitot each time through the loop for 
use insidQ the loop, and if you want to stop alter a fixed, niWber 
of times or when the loop variable reaches some fixed value - it 
comes lo tho same thing - then FOR-NEXT is what you're after. 

If you want more freedom, WHILE- WEND might well be 
what you need- You hayie to do more of Lhe donkey work 
yourself, mind yon. If you want a variable increasing by some 
fixed amoant each time through the loop, you're going to have 
to fijt it yourself. The 'b = b + 5' in the new line 20 wasn't 
necessary in the old Une 20, because FOR and STEP took care of 
that for you. 

When you need to decide which type of loop to use, just ask 
yourself (a) do I i\eed the loop variable? and (b) when do I want 
lhe loop 10 stop repeating? 



NESTED LOOPS 



So (ar we've only skinurted the surface of whal loope can let us 
do, Our progrann draws a square 'fialling' towards the bottom of 
HiG screen, but you could do much more c;ompI|4:ated things 
with it if you wanted to. Using just one loop or even a series of 
loops one after another doesn't get at the real power of looping. 

Before we get any further we'll have to gel rid of that 
faUing-^quare pjogram. We'll naed if later an though, so rather 
than typing NEW straight away we want lo save it. 

It's a good habit before saving anything to label it by 
tacking a few REM statements to the lop of the program. Six 
months later with a heap of cassettes or diales to sort out. you'll 
be glad you did. 



1 ftEM Fall tt-.g squares 
1 HfcW AbSDiutfi fio^-jifincrs 



AA OvC. 3[j 



Ufpw \i you've got a disk drive you've got things easy - just 
shove a formatted disk in the drive, type SAVE "square"' 
(return), and after a few seconds of whirring you'll have your 
program safe and sound on your disk, (If you don't know how to 
format a disk, checkout Matt's Boohng Up CP/Mloi the details.) 

If you've got a drive-leas 464. just put a cassette ir, the data 
recorder and type SAVb "squiire" just as you would for 
saving a program to disJc. Arnold will then lell you to 'Press 
REC and PLAY then any key'. Do just that, and he'll save your 
program for you. It'll take longer than a save to disk would, but 
for a program of this length it's probably worth the efiort. 

Now that you've saved the square-dropping prograiTi, type 
UST. You'll find that the program is still quite unchanged. Tho 
SAVE command doesn't move the program onto your disk or 
cassette: it just makes a copy th^re, leaving the original intact m 
Arnold's memory. 

Knowing that we've got a copy safe on cassette or disk, we 
can use MEW to get rid of the original. When you've done that, 
try typing in this listing: 



nak«s 'i&'a 



This )UBt prints out the Tiv^tjmes table - hardly exciting atulf, 
I'm sure you'll agree, Kow, modify line £0 and add new lines: Q 
and 35, so the program ends up looking like this: 

5 FOP b-1 TO 10 

10 FOR <S-1 TO 1^ 

20 PPINT h." tlmiwb ' a, m^ti " b'H 

30 NEXT e 

3j NEXT h 

Try to guess what this is going to do, Then run it. to see if you 
were right. 



1^ 


f'Dfl a-1 


TO 


MS 


20 


PFliVT " 


5 


tirnes 


^0 


NtXl a 







LOOPS WITHIN LOOPS 



Now you know what the piogranv does, but the questior* is why? 
Well, ^ink about the loop formed by lines 5 and SB. This tells 
Arnold to repast all the hnesi in between - lines 10 to 30, in other 
words while stepping through values of *b' from 1 to 10, We 
know what hnes 10 to 30 u«ed to do befoia wa modified line 20: 



they just printed out the five- times table. The flange to line 20 
just means that they now pnnt out the b'-times table, whatever 
■b'ia. 

The first time through the "FOK b ^ 1 TO 10" loop, 'b' has the 
Talue 1 so lines 10 to 30 print out the one-tintes table. The neit 
tune they print out the two-times table,, because 'b' is now equal 
to 2 - and so on until "b" gets greater than 10 and the "FOJS. b = 1 
TO 10 ... NEXT b' loop stops repeating. 

Our program has two si^parate loops, one inside the other. 
There's a special term for loops like this: we say the^y'ro nested. 
The outer loop - the one that starts first and ends last, in this 
case the TOR b' loop made by lines S and 35 simply tells 
Arnold to repeat the lines in between. These lines include loop 
commands that form an iimer loop - the FOR and NEXT 
commands in lines 10 and 30, in the case of our program. 

As you know, (he TOR b-1 TO 10' makes Arnold run 
through the outer loop ten limes. Each one of these ten times.he 
repeats (he inner loop ten timea. In other words the line inside 
the inner loop - line 20 - gets repeated 100 times. All that 
printing scrolls off the lop of the screen pretty fast, but the 
program really does print lOO separate messages - lake my 
v/Ord for it. 

Let's try another program that makes this a bit clearer^ 
NEW the times -table program and type this in instead: 

10 PRINT 'Line IB" 

?0 Ft)fl y-l TO 3 

33 PRINT "Line 10; a-";a 

A^ MH h-t TO 4 

50 ^RIM "Line 50: 

GS3 my.-^ b 

70 ^niKl "Lina 7g; 

a^J WtXV a 

9^ fami ■Lirt* SB" 



a^-.a;" b*':b 



9-":a 



You should now Iw able to see the dow' of the program - the 
way Arnold repeats lines according to the loop commands - by 
looldng at the messages he prints up when you run it. 



GOOD AND BAD NESTING 



Loop commands come in pairs. They tell Arnold lo repeat all 
the lines between the start (FOK or WHILE) and the finish (NEXT 
or WEND) of the loop. If these repeated lines include the start 
and finish of another loop, that's okay - we just have a nested 
loop as above. But what happens if we have this second loop 
starting m the repeated lines and finishing a/terthem? 
Take a look at this liating and you'U see what 1 mean: 

2^ PHIl^T a 

2^ "OR b-1 "0 fi 

4i5 pRnr b 

[■IS N=XT 3 
^^ NiXT B 

This 13 called bad or improper nesting, and Arnold can't cOpe 
with it. He's tiot the only one - 1 can't sae what it's supposed to 
do eidier. This kind of thing happens only if you're careless. H 
you'^re nesting loops, make sure the inner one is completely 
inside the outer. That way you'll always be okay. 



AND FINALLY.. 



Nesting isn't jiASt about puttmg FOR-NEXT loops one inside the 
o&er. You can nest 'WHILE-WEND loops, put FOR-NEXTs inside 
WHILE-WEND B or vice-versa ► 

Reload the 'falling sqpiare' program you saved earlier. If 
you're a disk user simply put the disk onto which you saved 
back into the drive, lhe same way up as before, and type Loed 
square '. The disk whill whirr. yona'U get lhe "Ready* prompt 
and, when you list it you'll find you've got lhe program badk. 
Tape tiserift will have to rewind the tape and then type LOAD 
"square ", Antoid will tell you 'Pieas PLAY and then any key." 
Do this, and your program wiU load back in. 

No'w you can experiment with your program. Try putting 
an outer FOR-NEXT loop around it to make it Mi repeatedly, 
You could even use Lhe loop variable as a sideways coordinatet 
so that the square fall* slightly further over each lime, 

AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 « 



SERIOUS SOFTWARE 



i 



MoH Nicholson in 
previous issues gof to 
grips witli the intricacies^ 
oF thB CP/M operating 
system. Technical editor 
Richard Monteiro now 
tal(es over the series,, with 
a closer look ot «ome of 
the utility programs 
»uppti«d with your 
system disk- 

Some are so awful 
and user-hostile (come to 
that, not much use either) 
that we'll gladly pass 
them by. 



Mote to PIP than meets the eye? 

After reading through previous artiqlg; on 
Booting CP/M, you should be fairly happy with 
PEP and the various things it tran tio. One 
unportant point that has not been mentioned is 
the posaitolihty of liaving extra par amq tors 
following the PIP cominarid. Well, as promised 
last rtionth, here is a briel rundown oti the 
more important: of these parameters and their 
functions. 

You'll remember thai Pip uses the star as a 
'wildcard' - sO * . cur means any filename with 
OKtension '.com' and ' * means any filename, 
any exlensiorin To copy all the Hies from the 
disc in drive A 10 the diSc in drive B you would 
type 

whi^ IS very handy. However , using the extra 
or optionai parameters available. 4;ven more 
control iA available 10 you. For Example, type 
directly foUowirtg, kke this 



iV 



PtH b:-A: 



I VI 



and all the copied files will be verified - the 
system will check that they have l>eeiv copied 
correctly. 

Other parameters include: 

[C] Confirm (in CP/M version 3-1 only). 
TWi3 will display a message asidng you lor 
confirmation before copying each file - esped,- 
gJly useful where you have given anUsiguous 
Jjlenames (for example *.*). You will be given 
the choice to copy or not to copy, 

[E] Echo an transfers to tlte screen. Mes- 
sages 9uch as 'Writing to drive B:' appeal to let 
you know what is happening. 

[LI Lower-case only. This will oonven all 
capital letters to fowefr-case. 

[If] Upper-case. Thds has the opposite 
effect to [L], in that it converts all lower-case 
chaiaclers to upper- case ii?- rapitals. (The 
terms come from the days when printers set 
type by hand and sorted mdmdual metal or 
wooden letters into two cases, an upper and a 
lower.) 

[H] Hejcadecimali characters ^le assumed. 
All characters in the file are checked to be 
hexijdecimal; an error message results if not. 

[Pit] Page length n, Formfeedg sre inserted 
(a new page is started) after every n lines of 



text. The default a GO - useful if copying to « | 
printer. 

{Qstring^Z} Qvau A fiJe will be copied until j 
the specified string of characters is encoun- 
tered, and then closed with an end-of-Olej 
marker. For example [0ajea|2] will copy 
everything up to, but not including, the word 
'area', (fie sure to type t^> wihich is CF/M's 
end-of-file marker, as Conlrol-Z - not as lhe| 
tw^o Esparate characters arrow and Z.) 

[RJ Read system file^ls). Sya files can be I 
copied easily with thi« option. These files are 
hidden Irani the directory - see the August and | 
September articles on STAT, 

[SslringfZ} Start. A file wiU be copied from I 
the first occurrence of the strmg, unlj] (he end 
of file. ThiiB, [SknowiZ] will start copying the 
file from 'know*. The string will be included u:| 
the copy unlike its counterpart [QstringlZ]. 

[V] Verify. As mentioned previously, Ihisj 
verifies the data between source and destin- 
ation fileSt checking that a perfect copy was| 
made. 

fX] Copy. Mon-Ascii files (for example. 
Basic and binary files) can be copied using lhi$| 
option. 

Watch the syntax of these extra para- 
meters. If tising more than one of (hem, the J 
correct form is: 

PIP 1ST -I5FM0-TXT[U P57 QtteTlof^J 

This command will send to the printer the filt] 
PEMO.TKT in uppercase, inserting a for- 
mfeed after every 37 lines and Ctniahing on the I 
word 'hello'. Eton't worry if you have not quite I 
got the hang of it, Trial<and-«rror is the best] 
method of teadting yourself! 

That ends the list of the more useful ex-l 
tended PfP paiamelers. As you can judge fori 
yourself, PfP is a very versatile program, It I 
may not be the most user-friendly, but therj 
CPyM itself vraa never renowned for that! 

Other programs on fhe system disk 

The rest of Booting CP/M this mo!\th will be| 
devoted to explaining how, why and when tc 
use the nuitieious application programs on lh»| 
system disk that came with your computer. 

I'll tackle Ihe simpler of thtse progra 
first and gradually climb the ladder, till (he 
worst offenders have been properly dealt with ' 



Dhcco|>y.cotn and friends 

DISC COPY, as the name implies, will let you 
copy diskE - in CP/M. data or IBM Jonnats. This 
is only useful for single-dtive syaieins. If you 
have dual disk drives, you also have a 
program entitled COPYDISC, These files are 
available under version 2.2 ol CPjM. 

DISKIT3 is a useful file to have around with 
CP/M Plus instead of Disccopy and Copy disc. It 
allows copying of a complete disk and also 
caters for formatting disks in system, data or 
vendor format, (If you desire IBM formal you 
wiU have to use FOftMAT a£ found on version 
3.3 system discs more of dial later.) 

DISCIGT2 is another version available m 
CP/M 2.2„ which works with only a single bank 
of €4k memory, as opposed to Disckit3'S using 
both banks m the CPC ^12& Disckit2 is conseq- 
uently slower. 

If you need to verify that that one disk is 
identical to another, thett uiae 0ECCHK (for 
4S AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 



Part 6 



single-drive users) or CTOtDlSC (dual drives). 
We come now to copying individual Gie^ 
Useis of two drives should use Pip (which tiasj 
been dealt with in great depth). For those withj 
a one-drive system. Pip wiU prompt you wheni 
to swap disks if you have CPfM Plus. The! 
foilowmg utility is supplied fox single- 
users with GP/M version 2.2: 

PILECOPY will copy only Ides that have a| 
R/W and DIR status (road-write and director 
status are explained in previous articles), "fo^l 
type: 

rfl.rCOPV fiieaave 

You can copy more than one file tf you use thfl 
'7' and '*' wildcards. 

Copying cassettes to disk 

Included on the system disk are a couple 
programs called CLOAD and CSAVE. Cloa^ 
reads a cassette file and writes it to disk. Csa-v 



quite appropriately reads a file from disk ai;d 
outputs it to ca«$ette, 

Cload [i«eds two pHTamfllers, separated 
by spaces or oomnta: 

The c&ss6tt« lUenaiTte to read is enclosed in 
double quotes (") if a filename is not present, 
tjhe Htn file on caaaetle will load. If a disk 
GJename is not set, it will he saved, to diEk 
under the S$imt name 3S that o[ the cassette 
EilenAme. (This m.ust be a maxiinum of 8 charac- 
ters to be compatible with the CP/M operating 
system). 

Tile programs transferred are saved as 
Asdl flies, so don'T expect them to work 
correctly without modification. Another point 
to beware is that protected fOea can not be 
transferred. 

CSAVE is very similar to Cload, but there 
is a third optional parameter to deal witli this 
time. The first two behave in precisely the 
same manner els Qoadl's, The ihitd deals with 
cassette write Speed: a '0' for lOOO baud and a 
' r for 2000 baud - makes sense: 

That ends the copying eega, and the vari- 
ous files that will do the job. 

Formatting - as simple as 1 r 2^ 3 

FORMAT, supplied on CF/M version Z.2 dieCS, 
has the aljUily to forma c a disk in any of four 
ways. These are System, Vendor, Data and IBM 
fortnat. 

To select a particular format, type a para- 
tneier aJier the Formal eomm'^d: S. V. D or I. 
For example 

PCRNAT D 

causes a disk to be data>formatted. Just typing 
Format (and return) mil t»e Sfstem torartai as 
default. 

A system-fonnatted disk win have two 
resented system track* copied onto it. These 
contain part of the CP/M opera ting system. 

DISKIT2 and 3 also have functions for 
formatting a disk, but make no provision for 
IBM format. All formats are selected from 
menus when iising the DtSKlT programs - very 
nice and simple! 

To SETUP or not — is there a doubt? 

The selup file allows users to configure disks to 
meet their particular basic requirements. 
These parameters or setup values are held on 
a special sector (oonJiguraiion sector) on the 
aystem track. 

A few o[ the items SETUP allows you to 
modify include the ^ign-on string, keyboard 
tianslations, drive characteristics and baud 
rates for the senal interface. 

Typing .ser ip will invoke several mes- 
sages, most askmg you whether to change an 
option or proceed to the next. Here is an 
outliTie of them; 

IiutJal CQiTunand buffet, YOU CeH SlOjre 
128 characters of commands to be executed 
automatically. For example, if you want a dir- 
ectory of the disk every time you boot up 
CPjfM. do this when asked to entex the 'new 
initial command buffer": Type a -rTy and Enter. 
You should be familiar with DIE by now; the TM 
(Control-M, not two separate characters) 
stands for Enter or Return. 

Using control codeSj, it is possibly to 



change border, paper, ink, mode and window 
size among other things. It is even possible to 
liave a program execute as soon as CP/M has 
been entered - try and figure that one out for 
youraelf. 

Slgit^on Blxliig. This is a string of (Aarac- 
ters - op to 353 - that is outpt;sl lo the screen 
when CP/M is invoked. 

If you enter 'QtUities disk 1986 - Jack Jones' 
as the sign-on string, exactly that will be 
pointed every time you enter CP/M. Persona- 
lized discs - what more could you wish for! 

Printer powei-np stfing is very similar to 
the sign-on siring. As the name rmpli^, the 
message yoii type here wiU be sent to the 
tjfinteir each time yoti boot up. Tha cotild be a 
text message or, perhaps more usefully, a set 
of control codes lo set up your printer. 

I'ra most thankful for the option Seyboaid 
tt&nslation ta&le. which lets me redefine the 
codes generat&d when 1 press ceriain keys. 
Each line in the table has four columns to fill in; 
key number, noirmal, shift and oonirol. 

Key number refers to the aclual key lo 
redefine. There should be a comprehensive 
list at the back of your Amstrad User Instnio 
Hoiis - or it's handily printed on the Sl^'s 
case. The remaining three columns allow dif- 
ferent values to be generated when a key is 
pressed on its own, with the Shiit key or with 
Control. 

A nice example wotild be lo set up the 
cursor keys (which happen to have codes 3, 0, 
3 and 1) so that application programs will 
recognize them. Here they are set for 
WotdStar, which in its ordinary unfriendly way 
(considering the l^ttsrs, 'unfriendly' may be 
the wrong word!) would expect you to use 
Control with the keys S, E. X and D - Ascii 19, 
5, 2:4 and 4: 



Kflv code ^Dtra] 



■9 



Shift 

1 

IS 

3 

e 



Cont --o ( 
141 

MA 



U. you wish to alter the keyboard translations, 
you are presented with a menu closely resem- 
blmg the followmg; 

A - Add key translation to table 
D - Delete key translation 
C - Clear translation table 
F Finish translation 

To enter the first line that 1 gave as an example, 
you would type A . S . 1 9- . 1 - I '^ 1 . 



Well have to look at the remaining Semp 
questions in a future instalment. They are 
rath a r technical, and this month's space is full. 
To be safe, best to say no to the rest of the 
options. 

However, before you go, look at the last 
two unanswered questions. 

Do you want to update your syGtem 
disk? fY/N) 1 would suggest that you go 
through all the options a number of times - till 
you are confident of what you are changing 
and the effects they will have on your disk 
before answering yes to this question. 

The final question asks whether or not you 
wish to lestait CP/M. Well, it would be nice to 
see what you have done - because the whole 
purpose of Setup is to make life with disks 
more pleasant. ■ 



^ 



! 



i 



SPECTRUM 

COMMODORE 

& AMSTRAD 

HOME COMPUTIRS 



S F T 'iV A ^ [ 

Bec:trlc Dreams Software, 

3t Carlton Crescent. 

Southampton ,Katnpsh[rc S01 2EW 

Tel: (0703) 229594 




_ ,,^^ ' The omciaWymSoTsed game hy 

Kiortaml 



Sequel to the hugely successful Hung Fu simulation. 

B^ht more deadly opponents to combat as you develop your karate shls and ad\/ance to become a 

black'belt nriaster 
Authentic fighdng moye5 with 4 different locations create an outstanding and realistic atmosphere. 

rmagirte Software ( t^e4|[Lfnited- 6 Centfaf Street- Manchester- MZ 5NS-Tel: 06r 834 3939 



^^B 



sr^rr:. 


















3"DfSCS 

Usualiy AvsifBble 

@ f J5.00 for fO 

/'na P, & A 



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a«2fiS0iS»©i^ 



TAPE TO DISC 
'**^^K Sf AIPLC 

'^t (■«, M t^.,t^ .. . 



"tl 



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If you're already elite . . . 
there can only be 

one more challenge. 




^ KONAMI 

AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 SI 



DIGITAL' 
INTEGRATI0^% 



h 



'^1^ 




EDUCATION 



Arnold moves up a grade 

Last month we looked at Amstrad software meant 1o educate pr&^schoolers. Now we move up to look at some of 
the packages avaitabiie for older ag^e groups. The scene hias improved a bit since our education feature last April. 



CAESURAS TRAVELS 

Mirrotsolt £8,35 csss, hevtufard 



Educational software tor the Ams&ad eom- 
puter lange \s sciajce, and what \s available 
is very siibBtaridard. Cs.ssar's Travels is 
one of those rare exceptions, being weU 
packaged and presented - il looks and 
feels as proiessionally done as today's ^^ 
tortainntent software. 

Caasai's Tia.vol3 comeg in the form 
book written by Jcmiea Mercej. Aimed M 
a^ rainge of 3 to 9. it suita botli pre-readers 
(obviously accompanisd with an adult) and 
early readBrs. The comput&i cassette con- 
tains an abbreviated form of the story, but 
with the 4dded advantage of animated, 
action , 




Poor old Caesar h^s been kicked out 
into the streets for not doing his job pro- 
perly; catching mice. You take on the lole 
of this miseilblig cat, Via Vtis keyboard 
input ihal yoL supply^ diffsTent quTcomes lo 
the stety may occm, The idea is that you 
find a new home for ycmrself. Watutally you 
have? many advcnturGs along the way - it'e 
not all a bed of catnips. 

Only eight keys are involFcd. This is 
an ejtcelleni idea, as it \"rilt not qonluse and 
thus put otf any youngsters, The nimib^r 
keys from 1 to 6 are used to instruct Caesar 
to perform ceilair! cln;tioJ^3, For exanipie, 
preflaing 1 wiU cause C^aesai to run and 
pieaaing 3 will make the cat jump. 

Two other keya are Enter and the 
apanTebar. Ent«r ta ne^ed when answering 
certain questions that crop up from lime to 
time. For example, a number of objects 
may appear on lihe screen - in one case 
nin^ sausages appeared. You must count 
tham up, then pr^aa the correct numbiai 
key (9 in this case), foUowed by Enter. The 
spacebar is used to continue or start a new 
game. 



To make things easier for a child, all 
the keys and their associated use are 
printed on a card which can easily be 
placed on the keyboard. 

The game itself is very good, the teM 
appearing at the top of the screen while 
CaEsar cavorts amid relevant scenery at 
the bottom. Once you have instructed 
Caesar what course he should take» hq 
carries out his actions graphically before 
the next section of text pops up. 

Overall, this is an sKcellent vJay to 
jtitroduce toddle te to reading. They can 
SCO their words enacted on screen, and we 
aJ] know a picture is worth a thousand 
words. The text appears on screen lirie by 
line, at a pace a youngster can handle. 
Tunes are played at various stages m thj« 
game, adding to the atmosphgrd and 
(jv<eraU en] oywient. 



MirTi>rsoft 

Maxwell House. 74 Wor&hjp St, LontJon, 
ECSA SEN Phone; 01-377 4$44 



Pla.y School, for the three-plug agegnoup, 
consist with a seiectson of tiny games. 
Some are of e-ducational use, others - well, 
they just pass the tirne of day. 

When you first run the program, a few 
tnaiiuctions appes.T on the scjcen, telling 
you which keys you can press, and what 
they dO- Wnte tham down or remembei 
them, as no reference is made to the keys 
further an in the program. 

You are then asked to press P to play 
the game. At this stage, piessing Shifl-0 
will sat the level of difficulty. Altemaiiveiy. 
P win take you off to a party, where after 
several seconds ga.zLt)g at a less- than- 
mouthwatering graphical cake, you are in- 
troduced tea Superkid, the question mastar. 
He promptly aslcs for your name - you type 
LEI your name and press Enter. 

On completion ol all the miroductory 
meseageE, you get a menu with six options. 
Thdse range from simple addition pro- 
blems to trying your hand at drawing. The 
Eirst option is Counting'. A laige box is 
drawn on screen and a nunibei: of objects 
appear inside. Tou musi count them up and 
enter tlie correct nt4jnber. 

Superkid is watching you throughout 
youT ordeal - his eyes occasionaJiy blink — 
but for the most pari, he is cold and stony. 
He shows either displeasure (when answer- 
ing wrong) in the torm of taming his mouth 
down, 91 ^dmiiaTion (of correct answers) 
by grinning broadly. 

You are given three ehanoes to ^naweir 
a question correctly. After a third failure 
the answer is displayed and the next ques- 
tion in a sequence of three is diispiayed> A 
correct answer merits a point in your 
favour; incorrfld and ii'a face down. 



AMSTRim ACTION DECEMBER 1SS6 53 



EDUCATION 



After amv^eiing Ibe thre* questiotl^, 

either Virhizkid wiQ choose which e«t of 
questions you will try next or you v/ill get to 
^oose i^gain (Uus seenis to be at rsmdom). 

Moving down the t9J?le of cJioic*?, w& 
4:;«im« lo 'Find It'. A l^tier oi namb^ic i$ 
diapJaycd On the sct^^n, and tb& cliild then 
)ia3 lo search for it, Tliis is £t good way to 
teach duldren how to sssociaie one ihing 
with anoihor. 

The next option, "Paint Box", ie lather a 
limited drawing utility; Only one colour is 
allowed on screen (the cMId ceui ctvoosa 
Shis colour), Movem-ent ia via the curgor 
key«, so Ptti afraid that yoii arg restricted to 
straight hues (or crooked ones at leaat), It 
may hold diildreii's mtercst for a while, but 
when they wi&h to impiove on their de- 
Signs, they will be stuck. 



A^5 



3 



^7 



hem four is Match Up', Siic odd-looking 
pattems aie dr^wn on thi? ^qr&an; * iurthier 
ono is drawn apart from the previous stx.. 
The child le to match the aaventh object 
vrlth one iA Ihe elhei six.. 

The next item ia not ono of the smo-o- 
ttieat, fastest arcade-raction games available 
on ftny home micro- Yoa conuol a Paqman 
lookalike. whose sole task is to eai any 
stationiLry objticlii in its path, 

The last but by no means least o! the*e 
oplionE \9 'How Much', This aels a fairly 
reasonable little additioti test for your 
prinxary-Bchool kid. A boK with a number of 
items appears; you niust type the correct 
number as with 'Counbng'. Then another 
box Ifi drawn with objects inside. Do tha 
same action as before. Then you musl add 
the object? fron^ bo<h baiEee together and 
type this total. 

On the whole» ihig is a well-presented 
package, vrith some nice touches, es|>eci- 
ally Superktd with his flicking eyelids and 
mouth Rwvesnents, The options available 
will no doubt prove valuable teaching aids 
for the youngBteia, and more importantly. 
keep them interested. 



PHYSICS 

SeJiuo! SofiwjflrE. £3.35 cass, £14.95 disk, kgifs 



Physics, lik^ its counterpart diemistry, hftS 
one thiing basically incorrect with the pack- 
agittg, ox rather the information displayed. 
Et is not up to O-Ievel standard. Maybe 12* 
to 14-yoar-olds wiU appreciate this but not 
16-year-olda - that is, if they wish to pass. 
Apart from that, slightly moie eCfort has 
gone into Physics; the queationa are not as 
gjnbiguous, not quite as many spelling 
errors, and it actually sccepis my answer* 
(if they are tjorrecl, of course]. 

Physics has a nine-option menu to 
choose from. Each optLon has a notes sec- 
tion as ¥rith Chomistry. They are, however, 
slightly tnore substctnlial. if you don't Wish 
to read the notes, you can go straight into 
the question section. 



There is a nice suprise awaiting those 
that opi for one of the sets of questions. 
Included wii-Jh many oi the questions .ire 
email diagranna related tO the subject it 
makes aU the difTerence. The style of 
answering and marking questions is ident- 
ical to thogc from Chemistry. 

Again, once aJl tha questions have 
bean answiesxed, there Is nothing more to 
be gained from the package. It would have 
been quite simple to include extra gues- 
tions that could be loaded up whenever 
required. In that way. the user wouJd 
aquixe a much broader knowledge of the 
topic at hand, 

What would have been nice was a 
graph showing how well yOU had done 
after answering the question* from all the 
topics, possibly giving you an average 
mark at the same instant. 

Slowly but surely the educational mar- 
ket is coming to its senses. If you compare 
the tit]es reviewed here with those back in 
the April issue of AA — Well, there can be 
no comparison; roal progiess \^ being 
made 




CHEMISTRY 

ScIiddI Software. £9.95 Cd«S. Ct4.9S disk, ksys 



Hooray - at last eomeone has conte up with 
a chemistry program aimed at 12- to 16- 
ycar'olds. That was my inital reaction. My 
enthusiasm waa soon, dampened, howevei, 
as it became clear that the program had a 
Song way to go before teachiing 0-Ievel 
i^^andaxd. 

On loading, yOU are presented with a 
menu oQeririig a skeleton s>eleetioit of the 
actual chenustry course. If the packaging 
had said 13- to H-year-oIds, t would have 
agreed, but there is no conceivable way 
that proepecttve O-level candidates can: 
even conatder passing wish this. Apart from 
that, there is a very good idea here, 

SelGcting one of the tOpicfi gives yon 
the choice to either read a few nates on the 
subject or alternatively jump straight into 
the questions. 

The notes are short and sweet. They 
cover the queslions yeu are aboiit to 
answer but go no further. For that, you will 
have to consult the numerous textbooks. 

The question sectioii has a wonderfully 



executed area, but there are many spelling 
errors, On OOCaJlons my answers where 
rejecled, I presumed either I had got them 
wrong or my speliing was incorrect, But 
then ttic program wouid spew out its ver- 
sion of the correct answer esactly what I 
had typed inl 

TTier© are ten questions to each sec- 
tion; you are given two chances to answer 
each one. If yOU ctitci the incorrect answer 
first time, you arc given a small due (which 
is generally small enough to enable you to 
attain the answer)- A correct answer earns 
you lOV* — if on [he second attempt you 
manage to get it right., you ase awarded 
B%. At the end of the 10 questions, your 
overall percentage mark is shewn; de- 
pending on the mark achieved, you will get 
the menage very good, good, or 'poor but 
win do better nest lime". Obviously you'll 



do better next time - the questions retnain| 
the same. 

This idea has the making of a goodi 
educationaJ package. Unfortunately, on the] 
Am.sciad at least, this product is stiU in iis| 
early daya; consequently it lias severe 
bugs, and could be lurUier enhanced wi* 
more questiOtWi a more comprehensive 
notes aeetian and a general tidy-up. SliU 
mufitn'i complain too bitterly as there are i 
few of these educational programs around 



Sc&oal Soft w&;e Ltd 

:JW«Ado'A-v*Se Estate, Raheen, Linierick. 

Meiand Phoner0i&3538i27S94 



S4 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 



FABULOUS FIREBIRD 



Firebird has grabbed the coveted Mastergome slot 
dgaln with the sufOerb gome Druid on pages 58-59> II 
lectures sofTi^ wonderful colour graphics and fovgh, 
addictive action. 

Thorfr was stiff compc^titfon for the top spot this 
month. A host oF Roves bottled it out - tKe run<*yp to 
Christmas begins. 

There's a cracking shool^em-upf from Gargoyle's 
new lobe I FTL, colled Lightforce on pages 56-57, with 
greot colour grophics, scrolling and fast action. The 
new Piranha lob^l also has its First gome out, The Trap 
Dc&r, based on the chiidren*» TV series. You can see 
Berk and friends Raved on page 66> 

Gremlin has earned yet another deserved Rave in 
Tfoitbtax&f, o 3D derivative of Bovnder - it's greot 
bouncing fun again on page 72, Mikro^&en follows up 
its excellent arcade adventure Eqvinox wiFh another 
graphically superb game Frost Byte - that's also on 
page 72. Mirrorsoft and Electric Dreams have also got 
in on the act with fcon Jon and Prodigy, o couple of 
arcade adventures to be found on pages 82 and 61 
respectively. 

We've even got another Grave award to hand out 
this tim^ to tho excruciatingly bad tt*s a Knockout hom 
Ocean. 

Lots of lovely stuff there lo get stuck into, so go to 
it. 



MASTERGAME 





AA RAVES 

Llghlforce (FTL) ,. ......„.., .,,.56 

Prodigy (Electric Dreams).... .61 




The Trap Door (Piranha}... ...j66 

Trailblaier (Gremlin)............ ...,72 

Frost Byte (Mikro Gen),.... .......72 

loon Jon (Mirrorsoft) ........B2 

OTHER GAMES TESTED 

Adfvator (Cascads).,. ...jB2 

Trivial Pursuit (Domark). ..,,.. ..-...„„„„ $2 

Atlantic Challenger (Virgin). J63 

Beach-Head 2 (US Gold)...... ............,.,.JS3 

Video Poker(Mastertranic)........„............ 64 

Kettle (Alligata)..,... 266 

Popeye(Macminan)..... .........69 

StreetHawk(Ocean).... ,69 

Glider Rfder(Quicksl!va) ....................70 

It's a Knockout (Ocean). .........................70 

Tlmelord(Alpha Omega),., ..............70 

Miami Dice(Bug Byte).....,, 76 

Pipeline 2 (Mastertronic) ....,.„„.,«.75 

Xeno (A'n'F)..... !..... ..76 

Galvan (Imagine) ,. ......B1 

Que stor (Cascade). — .,81 

The Inheritance (Infogrames) 83 



PREVIEWS 
Pulsator(Martech) B4 

Werner {Adolasoft) 84 

ikariWanior (Elite) .,,84 




AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 55 



ACTION TEST 



LIGHTFORCE 



The new arcadfj labci from Gaigoyle, ttie 
masters of arcade adventures, has a lot to 
Uve up to. But if this fiisi release is anything 
to go by, they look likesucceediny. 

It's a shoo(-em-ap bssed on many a 
popular arcade game like Star Farce and 
Xevious, where you fly o-ver a landscape 
that scrolls down the screen and have to 
blast both grQiJ.nd and aerial targets. 

There arc £oux zotves that /on have to 
get through, mping out every alien you can 
on the way, which repeat once youVe 
completed. 

The zenea vary in features and aJie^is, 
but all of them will give you a hard time and 
a weary firing finger. The four aoneti aie 
the asteroid belt, jungle planet, orbiting 
Hoite, and i[?e plajie!. 

Your craft appeals at the base of the 
screen but can be freely moved around if, 
both Up and down as well as lefl and right. 
You'll find that most of the time you'D want 
to stay at the bottom of the screen where it's 
aafest and just move up to avoid some 
aliens. There are two general types of 
landscape that scroll beneath the ship: float- 
ing structures m space and planet surfaces. 

Your ship fires twin ahois that provide 
a good ficid of fire when you. hamjrver away 
at the fire button. These deal with targets 
on the ground and other ships, but some 
cannot be destroyed at all and just have to 
be avoided. 



SECOND OPINION 

WJisf can Jl say, rhQ ^TSfSSc^t shoot-ent- 
iip sin p0 s}ic0(l iSreacf hea b^fdr^ in0 -~ 

I'm in iiesvea. Yes, yoajnsyhave 
gathered, ! have & slight bias for 
caxFymg oatmindloss t,is;ke. 

Light Force is beautiful, the 
graphics, the scioUing (albeit d triile 
slow - but who's cxtmplaining?), use of 
aolouz, blasHtig satisfaction, depth, 
siiisii vajF7e/y a;id 'give me snothez qo 
oi J 'U blast YQV ' appeal. Tlivivcighly 
rscommetidedi 

RpM 



AJi of the graphics are superbly done. 
There's good sGrolUng. gocd u*e of col&*r, 
lots of variety and nice explosioiut. 

The ships come in waves, while the 
ground features are in groups that usually 
eonialn a control centra. A bonua ja given 
straightaway if you can destroy all the pans 
of a group, while anothei bonus is given at 
the end of a Eono for all the waves you wipe 
out. The control centres are also important 
to dispose of because if you hit enough of 
them a bonus Me is given at th^ end of the 



straight dovtm the screen at you, others sXg- 
sag or wheel across it, and some cvcri 
honif: in pn you. 

Collis.ion with anything s^nds you up in 
a puff oi smoke and puts you back to just 
before the v/ave that you died on. You -re 
not at risk just from collision; the ships can 
fire bullets and even missiles at you - also 
fatal. 



GREEN SCREEN VIEW 
lost tltatone in tiiejun^e scene, apart 
itom that n o serious worries. 

RpM 



Bonus lives can be gained by destioy- 
ing some: groups where one of the targets 
will hide a smiling fas^e. If you reveal it by 
shooting the correct target, another life is 
added to your initial five. These bonus lives 
sre very important and if yoa can get all of 
them It improves your scoring chances 
greatly. If you score highly enough you can 
get hold of a shield which can be used 
seveiraj times to destroy everything on 
screen. You probably won't get one of 
those until you'v-e completed all four zones 
oncQ. 

For sortie people ahool-em-ups. are 
dirty words these days, but this one really 
brings them back to life. It's colourful, fast, 
compulsive, varied and tough - in short all 
the qualities a good ahoot-em-up needs. 
This one should keep you glued to the 
m«chme and atrengthen your joystick hand 
and file fmger no end. 

BW 




FIRST-DAT TARGET SCORE 

30,000 



► Four very tough .zones. 

^ Great graphies, scrolling and colour. 

^ Very varied aerial attach waves, > 

Groimd targets as well as aix. ^ 

CompuUfve fast action. 

h- Vqu ciJinreEl in between cones. 



> Boesn^l always respond well to rhe 
£ix» button. 








90% 




soniics 


42% 






GRAS FACTOR 


91% 
89% 


STAYING POWER 


::::::::^v^^:^^^gS 


'.-.■.-.-.-^■.■SWigRH I^Bwflfn 






-\''*'y.*\*\ ttSSSssMQcmsoQow 


1 A A RATING 


907. 



:Tm' 



y 




The ground targets all need two hits 
from yOur guns to destroy them while the 
ether ships requrr^ either a smgle shot or 
can 'I be destroyed at all. That meanfi you 
really have to work hard at the fire button 
to destroy groups, while the ships need 
fast&i leHctiona and more accuracy to deal 
with them. 

The waves of ships are very varied in 
both app-earance and behaviour, which 
means you need to become famiiiiir with 
their patterns of attadc. Some charge 



56 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBEj/ 










■f 







iA 





ACTION TEST 







AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 S3 




DRUID 

firebjfd, £7.95 cass, £12.95 disk, joystick or ke 



Tlie araade game Oaantiet has already 
spawned one defiv^ti^re on tli6 Jljnvtracl, 
Storm, and ihli la a i&cond which really 
flhawB why th* game was such a bi^ hir iai 
the arcadea. It's an tiKplQie-and-^oot-Qm" 
up that take* place on ^ight S,ooiS- of « 
towei, infested with nasty monsters and 
Qther autpriMs. 

Ydu take the part of the druid wJhq i9 
trying to defllroy four skulla created by the 
Princ^^ of Darkness, The skulld axe located 
on ihe last fouj floons of the lower, so you'll 
have to battle Ihxough four Qoora bafore 
you reach the fifat skull. The ftoora are 
CQ[iJL«cted by staiiwells. Usually there's 
only one connoctioii botween Dooxa but 
some have aaveral connectiona for oihar- 
wlse inaccessible areas. 



SECOND OPINION 

I see It. I hear ir. Hike irt Great for a 
quick iflset, sifpscially ii you have a 
pAobj'd against anything crawly - thosa 
beetles make g^rear target prsctice. 
Druid ig, Jwtw*v»r, juucfi mor^ thAB a 
s2ioot~oa tAtfh^ loa&l druid&ry. It t^ok 
me several attempts to riss from the 
9ociaJi gtandmg of 'Haif-wiV - zssson 
being I Ilk»d to *«nj the AbimdAnt avii 
YoiuBk ill apaftotsmoke! 

One thiKi^ th9t psits me oS playing 
ttm typs qI g^Lme^ k (he time spent 
loAdmgf. Voti cim notke i pot &f t^&, 
tiavas bath and i&ke ths dog for a 
walk. However this is a very minor 
point aud does not detract from the 
Gxeitiiiff fflxn eplsy. 

KpIVI 



You have to hghi yom way pa$l the 
hordes of attackiitg inoiustera and fmd a 
atairw«ll dowxt to the n&jci floor. On each 
floor there wiU also he a niunbex of tz0%- 
etiie chestfi that provide olijecti and 
powers that come in very handy £ach ftoor 
is s msze of corndort and rooms: you'U 
need to map out each one fo maka piogxoss 
(juicker in future games. 

The screen is composed of a window in 
which you vi^vt the action and a status ax0a 
where Aeven qgunters ^nd three gauged 

keep iraj^ of yoyr progress. Thxe^ of the 
countera ahow you how many miaailet you 
have of water, fire and electricity. The four 
other counters show if you have any of four 
spells that create a key, invlnbility, a 
Golem or 'chaoft'. Tha gaugi«ts show the 
druid'a strength, a Golem's atrength and 
your rating in the ganne. 

You can h*ve mp to &9 of the thr^* 
typ«a of mimilfl and chooAe which one you 
want to ahoot. Each type wUl kill a parti' 
oular monster quickly but il you're using 
the wrong nuBsile qh a monster it may tak* 
two or three hits to kiU il. The nuAsiles and 
the other spells caji be rouiuJ in cheats, but 
having taken something Out Of the dOBH it 
cfliutot be re-sjced. 



t^e four spells are essential to your 
progress In the game: the keys unlock 
dodr^, itivisibUity freezes the monsters 
leaving you free to jnovo, wtulo 'chaos' 
destroys all monfitera oit scxeen and xq- 
plenishea youi energy. 

Th& Golem spell ia the most interact- 
ing. It creates a cJ^aracfor who can be 
controlled by a second playei or move 
automatically. He deatroys monsters by 
walking Into (hem and (hereby protects 
you. He can be commanded to follow, wait 
or send, or be freely controlled by the 
second player. 

Contact with any of (he monateia will 
deplete your energy, aa will touohJng some 
other static features like water and check- 
ered squares. If energy reaches zero the 
gan\e is over and th« druld oollapaea in a 
heap of cloak. 

The Colem is also drained by hitting' 
monsters but when he dies you can always 
create another one, Your energy can be 
teplenishod by gtandifig in the middle of 
pentagrams, but the diffioully is in finding 
ihem before youf meagre resources run 
out, 

ThS' graphica are excellent with a 
multi-directional scrolling windoWi well- 
drawn chor^cierv and landscapofl. and 
great use of colour. 

The ganieplay is superb as weU^ hav- 
ing all the fast action and compulsivaness of 
a ahoot-^^m-up, but adso tho tactical u$o of 
chssta, weapons and Golem. 

The variety of (he graphics, monsters 
and maaes will keep you wanting to play, 
^nd the eight increasingly difficult Doors 
will pi@QOnt on dxc^^lic'FLt challenge. 

BW 

FJBST-DaY TAROET SCORE 




b^i* con be ustd 



r 



^^r 



58 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 




ACTION TEST 




One of ihe inariy 

fflonsteft: which 
ml^jlli; g#H. rid oF 

!( moit effldsnUy? 



Goad ■^teHln^ window. 

Elgbt lleofi of laetreaslng dlfiiculty. 

Great graphics and colou foT Vk9 
landBcapAB and chaxactftra. 

Oood variety orfeaturen with dlfCuent 
waapoxia, spellfl and abjects. 

Acttou It (iait, furlou! but tactical too. 

ThB Golem allows two to play. 



Not true mslti-player action of IH^ 



GRI-EN SCREEN VIEW 

As cfsAT ss Ihe ligrlti ofdsy-nit Ijroubls 

RpK 



GRAPHICS 



SONICS 



GRAi FACTOR 



STAYING ISOMER 



A A HATING 



1% 

[93% 
M% 

93% 



AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 S3 




CDMMODOflE SCRECM 



There are some places in the universe you don't go alone. 



ZX SPECTRUM 48K. 1Z8K/+ t9.M AMSTRAD CPC Cassette 

COMMODORE 6'1/1 2a Cassette,,... i;9.99 AMSTRADCPCOish.,,.. 
COMMGDOHt 64/128 Disk £14.99 



f9 99 
£14,99 



ELECTRIC 0^ WW S SOFTWARE 31 CARLTOMCRfSCfNI RflinHAMPTOH SOr^FW TFl (OTOJ 211969^ 
Wail Ufdcf: tieclncUfCWus SoUwiiie, TA femlSltest, Hsmpsnad. London NW.IPPN, 



ACTIOH TEST 



PRODIGY 

Eleeirie Dr^tmis, £3 93 cass, tm.9^ disk, jcvsttck nr ktys 



Qp. % W9fl(I iuv by rrvachin^s iheie are ju&l 
two humanoidis, Solo !iie Sytitldman and a 
baby called Kejo. You've got to help those 
two Jtelpleas characters escape ftorti this 
world tiuiabited by the other mutated 
orgiiuc creations Of Wardlock the machine 
9Diceror. The gAirte oertainly has an otit- 
standing fioundtrack, excelleni graphics 
and an Lntorcating playing area - but has it 
got any gameplay? 

The eiim of the game La to collect four 
security^yBrem controls, ono each from 
loxLt main gan;v^ ?one3, These aones are the 
ice. veggie, teeh and fire, ail ©f which have 
ihdii own very distinctive fi^^n^ry and 
charaicteiistics. The screen shows the view 
o( thti 3D landscape in rather a small box m 
the middle of the? screen, sttricund^^d by 
mostly redundant panels. The ficreen 
scrolls in four diagonal dirgctions se you 
moYe Solo, and Nejo can orawi aftei htm as 
well if you let hioi. 

There are gauges at the top of the 
screen foj yout oxygen supply, Nejo '3 food 
supply, and the state of hia nappy. At the 
bottom of the sore en is an area whore you 
receive messages during the game. You're 
aimed with a gun that shoota bubbles, 
which csmee in handy for deterring the 
mutant organisms and perfomiing some 



The main aim is to find the Becuriiy 
cubes. Once youVe got them they have to 

be taken to the contiol centre and - then 
what? 

The graphics aie impressive, using 
colour and detail well, while the soundtrack: 
is highly individual and grci^i to listen to. 
The only question is over the ganveplay: it 
consists mainly of wandering around just 
trying I0 find things. There's enough 
variety and eomplication to make il an 
absorbing game Ehat should really chal- 
lenge your mind and mettle. 

IW 

FmST-D&Y TARGET SCORE 

Find a cube 



□ 



I 



^ Ex^etlent 3P graphics, 

^ Highly original and eatejrt^IiUng 

sonadtrack, 

*■ Nasty creatuief that display 

intaliigencB agtd ^ttveTcranve. 

P- Tougb task a««piiijng Ihoughi ajid a lot 

of exploring. 

P- Original feature* like (be baby ud 

itiiBlt^B ding mazet. 



8 







H 



W 



» 



> A itnial] BcrDlllDg nu-eiL, 

p A Idi ot MU!td«nug ar^tuid seajr^bltag < 

can bt wearing. 



OE^i^If SCREEN VIEW 

A cchuf toggle is incoTpoisfed so 
bbc?? qx&en-satticu fieivet^s and colour 



The different foiitia of creature inhabit 
difl^ren) zones. But all can deplete your 
energy il they couch yoii and can send you 
back to the starting point if you're weak 
enough, Shooting them just makes them run 
away fox a while before they get their 
courage bacl:. 

Of great help while eKploring axe tele- 
port terminals, but you'll soon find plenty o[ 
surprises - zones that aren't what they ap- 
pear to b^ flnd floflirs that do funny things to 
your m&y^m,ent. Onee you know your way 
around you'v^e got to find out how 10 get 
more oxygen for yourself, food for Nejo, 
and how to clean his nappy as well. 



SECOND OPrNION' 
WJiat Aead-iMShmg music wlteti yen 
fiist iasd it up - some ol the sounds 
squoBzad through Amoid's speakers 

are am ajring. Tho graphics certainly 
JIM tch the in usic: scenery and 
charaders ars clear and detailed. It's 
hsrd; m /acr yoa csn w^jydsr aroimd 
fora^as '^/ithaai wsna^ing to 
nccomplisli anything. 

Who cares about gameptay when 
the semid and gt&phics are this good? 

RpM 





AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 



ACTION TEST 




ACTIVATOR 

Cascade Gaines, jayslttk or (i?y$ 



Quite an unusual offering from Cascade, 
and probatoly the firm's bd«1 to date. You 
cj^ntrol a spaceship which roams the pesl- 
InJesr^d qorridois of S'paceport Antari, The 
object is fo locaie fuel rods *nd place liiem 
in a csTiun, room, blasting ajty naaiie^ ihat 
happen to enter yoxtx sights. 

Starting fiom wha^ is presumabty your 
inotheirs.ttip. ycu hurtle along at a fSiii rate of 
Ittiots (paiECCS?) iintil eniering the port of 
Aittari, Onc(} in, th!&t^ is no way bac!< until 
the task in hand has been completed, tm- 
TTuedidtely you are fac^-to-face '.¥ith a less- 
(han-tiieiidly teing- ITie first reacuon is to 
stab at the Kire button. This will be lo no 
avail, for you tiave to search for weapons. 
What a time to find out! 

The graphics 3I& krg« and reasonably 
dataiUd. with the suirounding oorridora 
taking up dome lively pattierns - giOwmg 
all the more strancT'e the furiher you pro- 
ceed through the game. WhOe the miiiol 
tone wiU make you eithei r«(ch or reach fot 
the volume control, the l&s«i and explosive 
sounds axe very $ati4fyili^. 

Once you have found your amimtnitiofi 
(this appears a.s a bullet standing on. end). 



pressing Fire will pick it up. While in your 
posscssioji il will give untold hrepower. 
Blasling an alien Or one of die strange- 
looking plants with waving tentacles; will 
cause it to erupt into JlaniLes. There is one 
problem; if an alien is liesding towards you 
amd you manage tO jap it, the debris cont- 
inues on its original courae. So if you stay in 
the way, be warned; your energy bar will 
soan be shoi^t. 

During your travels on Antari, you will 
Eioltce objects with letters Inscribed on 
them. These, if you pick them up, aUow you 
to pass through various sections and thtis 
proceed further in the game. A miiximuni 
of three passes, which includes you; ammu- 
nition, may be cazried at one time. You 
need to select carefully lest you hnd yoixr- 






WrJi wtiU QYQi ISO reonw tQ explore 
and sonis fast sJio^t-em-ap Action, you 
would think this would he An exc^ilent 
gante-. it Iscks scmcthm^ iA^titig 
ftppssl or iJlh^T the giva-zne-ABotiiBT- 
go feci IthRs some decent graphics, 
vfsili good expJipsiVe noiss. Aptwt from 
diat. there is not much Soritie to 
Tecomm&nd- 

BW 



BS^^^^K? 


^^^51 


■^^^■fn 


MHiffiil 


H 


R^^lill 


m „.. ^ 


■^■ii^l 


■e^i:^^BHfl 


Wi^i^l 


mmWWm^M 


■«».i»«vl 


4t*» rmiE. IP^MU 


ttofinxit^ 


4990 £! « '"^p 






ftOMT jei 



self studc. 

You livill also very occasionally encoun- 
tet an item (hat defeats description. This is 
most likely to be one of the fuel rod«. just 
pick it up and take il tO the special room 
with H^. c:all them sevan odd-looTcing stools. 
Flytng over these wjE caiiise the rod to 
leave your gfasp and position itself onto 
one oi these stools. 

The playing area is tiuite surpriaingly 
large, and [ha number of aliens (Antanans- 
?) will keep the most trigger-happy freai in 
hesveu, To start with, .you aic given nine 
hvcs, which may se^m rather an ejscess, 
but boy do you need them - bvunping mto 
an alien or plant will cause serious damage 



TRIVIAL PURSUIT 

Oamark, I14,3&, joysiiek m keys 



This is the official version of that mostt 
inelevi^nt o! boflrd gan^es, h seeks to re- 
create the garnet throwing in a fe^r eziras 
Ihat % compuier can provide, jtmt in case 
you've been in a Tibetan manasticTy IOt the 
last fe^ir years Til give a brief despxiptiDn of 
what the game's abnsut- 

h's all based on questions of no im- 
portance whatsoever, except that knowing 
the answers helps you win th? game. 

You pky on a board where a ring of 
squares is joiiued. TO a central hub by siic 
spoken. The squareit are different colours, 
represendng six qnestion oategoiies and 
'throw again ' squares. Yci-u have feo land on 
the Six squares whexe the spokes meet the 
ring and answer a question correctly. Hav- 
ing go{ all six you can go lo the hub and 
answeir another question to win the game. 

At the start of a your turn you throw the 
dice (random choice of numJser by the 
computer) and can mjove thai number of 
squares in any diiettion, trying to get ojito 
on* of the spokc-ends. Land on a sobjecl 
square and yon havo to answer a question 
on it: get it right, you can throw again and 
continue your tum; wrong and play passes 
CO (he next player, 

Tho computer veMon of the; game is 
t»$»entially the same as the board game, but 
Arnold does all the hard worl; for you - and 
adda a few new touches to the questions. 
When a question ia a;sked the screen 
c^hanges to a cosy fireside ^oene whisre the 
qCtiostion can take the forni of music, a 
diagiajn, picture or jusd text. You can alter 
the lime allowed for answering, from Sve 
seconds lo luuilless- 

Once the answer is revealed you're 
asked if you got it nghi or wiong. Obvi- 
ously this means you have to announce 
your Mwwar oui ioud. It leaves a one- 



player game open to some terrible tempt- 
ahoits to cheat. 

Another enhanoement of the game 
made possible by the contpoter la that for 
e«ch player a chart is kept ftcording im 
knowledge of each category. This isn't jvwt 
of statistical inierest. It comes into play at 
the ond of the game when a player lands on 
tho htib and has to answer a question en a 
category chosen by the other players. They 
can study his score chart and pick his worst 



eZ AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 



The moln scre«ri 
s>h5wFT>g *rc board 



QKECN SCREEN VIEW 
O: Witich of As six bo^xd cotosirs 
wQuid you sity comss out best? StiU 
playable. 



AW 



subjert. 

/Uuher option lets you turn on and off a 
little H::haiactei calkd TP who presents the 
questionit. You can also add, remove or 
pau^e any player in the middle of a game 



liattt 




.:./:41«^;.;i»./j;.^K?;.^;:;gf;a^; 









■•w*»»**_^ 



ACTION TEST 



to your Uvelihdod. 

This itliiy all sdcin more ttiaji enough to 
be getting on with, Unfoitunaiely these kind 
people at Cascade have included a coun- 
tdowTi timer; only 30 minaiBB to complete 
the task, otherwisfi ... well, you know. 

Initially, there is a lot to do. v/hat with 
fighting off the aliens and p;cla,ng up 
passes. However you soon, are of the repe- 
titious ganneplay, The only thing keeping 
you going \& (he thought, 'Whcra on Antari 
lethal last iGd?V 

It's certainly tough, but once you re- 
cognise the playing area, you will probably 
move on to J:Omethiiig more demanding. 

RpM 

FtRST'DAY T&RG£t $COB£ 
7,000 



Q 



ly 



w 



ORGEN SCREI^inEW 
Everything is sxeephon^Hy dear 
somefone hss gat it right At l^t. 



HpM 



N E W 



^ Good IsUBtifig appall, 
>■ Large game ajrei. 
^ Satisfying exploHianB. 
*■ CelowrfuL 




while the others carry on as narmal. 

The questions are varied and traly 
trivial. Bui aftor yom play several times 

you'll notice the santc old ones coming 
back. To combat thai (here are IB other 
queetioji files available, so it's probably 
best to use those m some oj'der of lolation. 

As a niult]-pliiyq:r gamg i%'? 9s good a$ 
Ihs boaid game and makes use of both. 
sound and graphics capabilities. 

However the basic aim is still just about 
to .inswcr trivial quefiiions, whereas Povrer- 
piay (rcviEwod last month) taltes the trivia 
theme and adds a more absorbing game 10 
U. If you've never played Trivial Pursuit 
than take a look. Eul if you've got the board 
game ti's not really worth getting this aj 
wtiU. 

BW 







E W 



^ 3tep!leat«a the bdard gvjne very well, 
>■ Adds graipb leal and sound qaestions, 
► K gocid mi.;m-player game. 
^, XjoIb of c[qe^on files avaUable. 



S 



w 



►■ All seems very old-hat tbe9« dAys. 
P' Not worth buying iS you've got the 
board gune. 









CHAPKICS 


6ZV. 

68% 
69% 

6a% 


SOWiCS 


GHAB f ACTOH 


STAYING POWtR 


A A 1UTING 



^ Terrible tuns. 

¥■ Can become repetitious. 

► You won** go back foj more. 



GAIPHICS 



SQMIGS 



GRAB FACTOR 



STAyiHO FQWEH 



A A MTING 





'■■'.'■',■'■■'.-'-',•','',•',''''. 



VIRGIN ATLHiTTIC 
CHALLENGE GAME 

Vitgin. £tt,9S cass, joystick or h^$ 



Remember Richard Branson's toy boat that 
he wJuHsed across the Atlantic in record 
time? Weil, it won't come as any surprise 
that it's popped up as a computer game, 
probably to Help pay back the cos! of the 
btial. The game nuikQs Richard the 90l4 
crew member; you have to conlrol him to 
got the boat across the pond- 

You must do the ^obs ot the whole crew 
on the voyage: che^ck ihd radaj. say on 
course, avoid hazards, keep the enigine 
running, run your business using the telex, 
set the speed, and feed yourself. All the 
areas of the boat are shown on just two 
screens. You get at each piece of equip- 
ment by Etanding in front of it and p ressing 
the Fire button. 

You hAve to follow a planned route 
across the sea in order to rendezvous with 
fuel tankers which refuel your boat to keep 
It going. In ordei lo keep to this route you - 
m the cockpit - must Bteei along the bear- 
ing you're given by the radar Screen. You 
also have to steer around icebergs and 
fishing boats thai are constantly getting in 
your way. 



SECOND OPINION 
What's h^ffjjen*fd to my c-^ew? 
Probsb}yi&d up with ^,e whale idea, 
^eavingrm<a to canfroV rudder, jnainla&t 
the entfsiis room &rsd a whoie fleet of 
mandSTm tasks. On-scrven action is 
about as sxctting as a bad Hay's fishing 
- in sJiojnr npf very. 

It's ilf totj 6^sy to die: while 
cattyitig oiil matjrteniuiee on she 
engmo, you will undoabtPdly Strike an 
iceberg; or you will be avoiding the 
tceberg, only to Hud tfle engine 
overheats And bang, yoii sink* 

iiyoti hsve aeej? ell tte aetipu on 
l/ie fef*Vi^Ofl or r&dd About itiit the 
papers, tesvs this progr&m alone and 
try your ha/rd a S fishing. 

RpM 






Wlule yod'r^ busy aigj^ggmg across 
tht:> ocean ihc engine lemporature and 
mteas will be buUduig up, If you lei them 
rise too far the boat will break up. You'll 
either have to keep going at a staady pace 
or give thcni iimc 10 loat occasionally. 

You have to look after your health and 
the busmess ds wdl on this trip, mmg ^e 
galley and a iQ'Iak machine. At the galley 



you are gradually stoknd up with food, 
allowing you to move faster around the 
boat. The telex will ask you a t^uestion 
.fiboMl the business: you must answer yes or 
no. Gel the question right and you could 
make some money, wrong and you'll lose a 
pa<:ket. 

Most of your time is spent racing from 
one part of the ship to another as the 
computer informs you of each alert, This 
gets repetibve after a whila, and most 
annoying when one slight delay can sink 
the boni and end your game. There's {{Utte 
a long-tt?rm challenge m cotnpleting the 
route al all, never mind m record tim^a, so 
that should keep you plugging away. 

On the whole I think the g^ime consists 
mostly of hypo and publicity, but the (ough 
laak redeems it somewhat. 

BW 

Ridhard EFronHn «n 
lil^fleoiing rourd- 

br*okeJ 




GHEEN SCREEN VIEW 
It looks all ses-giaan to ma. 



RpM 



FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE 

£0% 







N 



W 



> You're constantly on the go, getting 
between locations. 

> 1V% very tough to complote. 



8 



N 



W 



S 



► Actions get very repetitive. 

► Too easy to die without much liotice, 

► There's never much actlvl^y on 
scireen. 

1^ Not as eKciting as the real thin^. 



GRAPHICS 



somite 



GRAB FACTOR 



STAYWG POWER 



A A UTING 



32% 
£37. 

47% 

5a% 



™^ 



v^yyi^ 



BEACH-HEAD II 

m Cold. C9.9&ass. t!4.9S disK joystick or 
Jcty* 



This sequel has been a long lime in the 
malting. Al )a»t you've got the chance to get 
lo grips with the dictator who apparently 
escaped ai the end of the original game. 
He's now construcied hinioeilf an island 



► 



AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1956 63 



ACTION TEST 



f Ortr^iSa which the allied forces aie trying !o 
capture, while the dictator trigs to infUct 
revenge for his earlier tSefeat, 

You cait play cnthcr the dictato; or itt^ 
allied commancier, oi go liead-to-head with 
4ii<?ther play&r, in the four-stage basUe (or 
supr^mAcy. In the first stage the allied 
par<kii-&a[>ets parachute m and attack a 
machJFLcgun nesl, next they use the gun to 
help hostages trying vo escape the dictator. 
Any reaciied hostages are put in hehcop- 
lers and Gown thiough heavy defences. 
The final eonfrontalion is between Ihe die 
talor and aUiod l^'Sder tiuowing 'poottta' 
sticks at each other sctdsb a river. 



SECOND OPENION 

WhAt a lot of rubbish f How can US 
Gold dare to pat out mack on the 
msTkci? Thepjogrsm \3 riddled with 
bjtgs. ypq /aU ^sl^^p Syins your 
chopper. Hdld down the spacsijar (Or 
Sis buiton) st asttsizi points of the 
gsme and^tnass a ^real scare. Best 
tMag is to stickylspe it snd wstch, in 
fyct, this is prohshiy the most exciting 
ieature of the game: seeing youi score 
rack andre&Ttied^f heights. 

RpM 



III one-player iTiode you can play either 
the allied commander or the dictator, 
^gdinfli ihe computer. In the first scene the 
allied player controls a chopper at the top 
of the screen that drops paxachubsts 
behind four walls running horiaotvtaHy 
across the screen. The dictator control!; a 
machinegun writh which he trios to pict off 
the soidicrs. OticC all the soldiers have 
landed they CAa advance to a wall neaier 
the gun and then over or around it to ttie 
bottom of the screen and past lite gun. AH 
the lime they'll he under heavy fire, but can 
reply by throwing grenades at the gun foi: 
bonus points. 

Elavitig oveifun the gart, the allies can 
lam it on fhe dictator and try to Kelp so^e 
hostages escape. They appear in the top 
left of the screen and walk automaticaUy 
across to a door^way. The dictator tries to 
stop them by tising several means whicih 
the allies try to counter with the gun. One 
soidijcr ties to drop todta om the eacaper, 
another lays nunes for hinv to run into, while 
a tank inmdles towards him trying to crush 

Hie «:r«en wiwr* 
Hie aisaurt it>figiit$ 




GREEN SCREEN VIEW 
Uiiioitanatety loo much is visible. 



K]}M 



him. ET at least one hostage gets through, it s 
On to Ihe ncjtt slago- 

This ia a heli<5opter Qight over a 
downward-£CfoUutg landscape which the 
allies have to coTtiptete with the hostages as 
pASSengei^. The dictator coittrals tajtks 
along the route that can bring the chopper 
down, while other defences work automati- 
cally. Tho chopper can ehool many of the 
defetic^ and fly under and over obstaclftg. 

The fins I stage has two figures standing 
on opposite sides of an underground river 
where they throw sacks to try to hit each 
Oth^ir. FOiir hits wins a round, causing the 
man to fall in the water. There are nine 
rounds to complote, a bonus being awar- 
ded for scoring 4-0 victories. 

The stages all sound fine in concept but 
ihsy are aetualiy very boring to play, For 
one, three and four ther^ are simple 
me^Ods for completing them without any 
difficulty whatsoever, while number two ia 
a lot tougher. The computer puts up rather 
pitiful opposition; even a two-player gams 
IS limited by the garrie's shortconungs, 
particulaity on stage two where the dictaiteit 
can win ev^ry time without iail. This is a 
bad conversion made up ol simple 
graphics, horrible sound and boring 
gameplay. 

BW 



N 



W 



► Two-playei option mmy pxodtie* some 

fun. 

*■ There's some variety in wha* you 

h^ve to do fu each stage. 



N 



E W 



1^ Unimpressive graphics. 

► Very tiasiy sound- 

^ Banng, simple gamoplay on alt 
stages. 

► Stages two and three are very slow. 







mm 


GRAPHICS 


43% 

ie%i 

44% 
38% 

42% 


S0N1CS 


GRAe FACTOR 


STAVIN^i POWER 


A A UTtNS 



VIDEO POKER 

Mastartranhc, CI. 39 cass, ksv^^n'v 



tit Las Vegas thei:e is a machine, much like 
a slot-maclune, that plays poker with you 
This is a silicon-diip version of it that will 
probably cost yau a lot less than throwing 
cash m the casino. You are given 20 coins 
wiQi which to bet: nickels, dimes, quarters 
or dollars- A hand of five cards is dealt to 
you. Before looking at it you hav0 lo bei up 
to ten of your ccmns. The hand is then 
revealed and you have to decide which 
cards to hold and which to discard. 

Discards will be replaced by new 



ones, which wiJl turn over to reveal your 
hnal hand. You're trying to ge! a winning 
hand. Most winnitig cornbinations cctiform 
to the usual rules of pokei and each one has 
odds placed on it. For instance the odda on 
gfittting a ilush are S to 1 , so if you get that 
hand yOu'U get back five times your stake 
money- 



sec OND OpnnoN 

Zszzs. Oh do esfCifSe /ne. I SPSS just 
Ca tchmg 40 winks whil6 my c^ani? 
»rere' being dealt. This could have 
boejt a hslf-tSeceitt gsme. but 
tistfortmistfly it fsUs down on sp&ed - 
oj lack of it. 

Nice graphics, awrftii son/id and 
ffsiTfeplsy. Somifone at Mastertronic 
atvsaasiy hssn'i hsard of the CPC's 
three-channs} sound chip: come to 
tha !, th^y cSJt 'the A 5*af e tk^ t Arnold 's 
intemsissre riintiijng st Appioximatclj 
3.7MH3L 

KpM 






The least valuable winning hand you 
can have is a pair of j^icks or better, which 
just gets you your stake money back. The 
fvtosi valuable hand is a royal Quah. for 
which the odds are 250 to 1 a bit stingy if 
you ask me. 

If you haven't got a pokei game it might be 
interesting^ but without the competitive 
edge of an opponent I found it very dull 
and rather slow. 

BW 




GltZE-n SCREEN VIEW 
At I^ast soias oiii dosen 't show apt 

SpM 



C D Him 


S 


>■ Cards turn nicely. 


BAD NEW 


S 



1^ ^le gajne is slow. 

^ Little to do, requiring little skiU. 

^ Tita vajtiety ta the game. 

^ No competitive edge to it. 







m 


SRAPNICS 


40% 
12% 
21% 
13% 

21% 


SONICS 


ghab factor 


STAVING POWER 


A A RATING 



64 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 



(^ (^ ^ ^ 




f 




/. 



i 



I /i 




AN ANIMATED ARCAD 
ADVjENTURE FROM 
HELL AND BEYOND 



'U 



^ 



I 






^ 






7///M^ 



ACTION TEST 



THE TRAPDOOR 

Prranha, C7,9S Bass, JQVStfck or kevs 



Based around Eha new cMldren's show of 
HiQ some nsjne this game £hoiildn''t be 
written off s4 just fot Wda; ir's gol a lol more 
to Dff«T. B^sidea the cute graphics, humour 
and good animaboti, thd^c 4r@ vprn? inler- 
esling tasks to compiete. You won't nuuter 
MUjm easily; 

TTie gun« C$ne©m* the atfjfempts of a 
hapleiB Berk to please thie Bad-Tempered 
Thing - upstaits, never s«on - tMt orders 
him to do various taslu, Bark mh&bitA the 
lovrer floois oi a dingy caitle and has to 
ddltvar oliJBGts to the BTT using a dum- 
bwAiler lift. Bflfk lum»^ is a lajge, bins, 
cu!e-lookit\g cookie moruter dh&ntblLn^ 
aroiuid the screen al pr«c9««ly the «pe«d 
beBttirig a fat lump like him. 

There are two types of Berks:: Leameis 
and Sup«iff, The Learners have to complete 
four tasles; [h& Superberk has lo dO Sve «nd 
also cape with some additional hazards. 



SECOND OPINION 

Oh wow} That was my initial maction 
on seaing svch it iavely, laige yet 
detailed Bitrk wandering .tround an 
ovei-iiiff^at^ii i^^nlh. W*' hniid and 
mouth movcmoitis are sa fantitsficaly 
fe^lintic - ^dmo:il btftter tkan wdtching 
me TVcanotm. 



The things poor B^k has to send lo 'Im 
UpslairB «tren't very pleasant: eyebaU 
ciush, boiled fltimies and a can of worms , 
for instance. It's adlily job, but somebody's 
got lo do it. Each (Uk requireB you to solve 
& jiuale by using various pieces of equip- 



ment and) inOdt difficultly) a cxeature from 
out of the trapdoor. 

The trapdooi is in the floor of Berk's 
starling room. Whsn he Qicke the lever to 
open it, out com«s a creature. One ot Ihera 
is Adtsetiiial to the c£Mi;tpletion of h (a^k but 
the others just have lo be got rid ol again. 
They each perform an action that you'll 
n^ed ajid although it inay tit>t be irTunedi- 
arely apparent what it is, you'll apprsciata 
their animation and humC'iir . 

Berk is wondoifully animated as ha 
waddles around the casde - one long wrap- 
around corridor with a single cellar room 
belotK7. The corridQ; ha$ sevei^ Slaircaaes 
thai Berk can climb lo re^ch baleonies and 
walkways. The piaylng area isn't very 
laig«; even «o, there a quite * lor of hajd 
work lo do to crack the game. The cattle 
itself is quite dull but the creatures within it 
are mosi enteriaining. 

Berk can pick up many objects, moat of 

contalnexa, ajiid tip the contenia from one to 
another. Some oJjjects %xm too large to 
carry and have to be pushed around to get 
them into position. You1t have to be quite 
imaginative in your use of them. Just to 
illustrate why, here's an example of one of 
the laskji. 

The BTT luas asked for fried «ggs so 
logically enough, Bork needs to gel a biid 
oul fxDm the trapdoor. Once out, it daps 
around doing nothing in particular, so how 
does Berk get seme egga from itr Well, ret 
to put too fine a point ot^ it, he needs to give 
il a bit of a surprise from beneath - catapult 
something into it, I won't toll you any more 
except that when Berk succeeds, the look 



V^ 



A big, bliM, 



on the bird's face i« hilarious. 

Each task has to bo completed within a 
time ILitiit or poor Berk will catch heU from 
yon-Jcno w-who , 

Throughout the game a little yellow 
spider hops (?) atound making a nuisance 
of himself. A skull can come in handy far 
giving advice on what to do. Another pro- 
blem is getting rid of an unwanted cieatuxe 



.REENYIEW 

rOdng Except Bcik ;s c!t\iT:y 
e That w * cryutg sluune ^ 
— o«ron*<wij*mjirreJ/ou* 
- ••ritlSliKwi mov&tnati 




Ifs hard to find wotds to describe this 
game because it's packed with oxiginality 
and is vsry odd. The kettle of the title is 
what you control, ft flies and has to be got 
out of an underground cave system - what 
could be more natural? 

The most mieresting feature of the 
game is that two players can play simulta- 
neously, viewing the action on separate 
halves oi a split screen. You can compete 
with each other to get through the game or 
help aacli other out if you want lo. In ihe 
one-playei mode Ihe second window 
diaappeaia. 

In each cave aystem there are 'bowels' 
which look like leather bottles and spew 
out blue bubbles from their open. tops. The 
bubbles are the your main danger: when 
they collide with you they take large 
chunks off your kettle energy. To deal with 
them you have a 'crisaa', a buUet that Otbits 
the kettle and destroys bubbles on contact. 
The crtzza can also be sent out ahead of you 
to keep the bubbles frsm getting clo$e. 

The criaza is alsq used to destroy the 
bowels by hitting them ten times to leave a 
diamond. Hit the diamond while the crizES 
is in orbit to reveal either a tin-opener (1 
said this game is odd], alien, bonus poittts 
QT a jug of water. The tin-opener is what 
you need to get through to the next level; it 

66 AMST RAD ACTION DECEMBEH 



ACTION TEST 





1 



lECOND OPimOK 

Lo vQ ih& sound vciy noisy up to Qie 
usual AtligM^ standard! tt's^ very 
origioiSAi id&a which uiifortumiely f^ls 
down on the giunepldy. The ta^kg 
neem rathsr repetitive, withtii^ 
scefi0ty chanc^g only sUcrhtiy as yoa 
proce&d ta deeper levels. In short, this 
g.AiuG lisivaa mt! cold: I keep 
expecting sometlung mors 6xcttiiig t0 
happen -perhaps one day? 



apens the lid of a connecting pipe when 
you approach it. The Alien draJne energy 
and has to be shot Th« jug of water 
lepleniahes yaur energy, 

The cavo sptems get gradually moi0 



CKmipUcaied and difficult, putting you In^ 
creAsingly at risk iiora banging into the 
waUg - another way to lose eneigy. Foitu- 
naiely you can reatart a game at the highest 
level you reached when ysu die so yC'U 
don't continually have lo replay the easier 
utming levels. 

The game has luuiy optionB besidcis 
the two-player one thai pur a bit of variety 
into the action. The crista can be made to 
proceed or retreat, which meeiiE it vnH 
either aiay out ahead of you when fired or 
letum to orbit as soon as U hite someihing, 

1 



GREEN SCREEN VIEW 

Very deer - no tionbia saving Any 

f«SltUI9. 




tn one-player mode you can eJso choose to 
have the vetwnd ketde ^ a kind of shadow 
that follows you -averywheie and thereby 
helps protect you with its crizza. There's 
aiso a flash' conunand which in two-player 
mode Dashes the bubbles to speed up the 

There's lots of ongmality, intriguing 
optiona and toagh levels- to cope with (hat 
make the game very intereating. Howevei 
the actual gameplay of flying around the 
cave systems destroying bowels will get a 



tittle repeddve. The scrolling two-player 
windowA are eiceUent though, and people 
who enjoy a two-player challenge should 
find plenty of enjoyrti'enlH 

BW 

rJ»flT-0JlY TARGET SCORE 

2.000 



COOP NEWS 

>■ dOlevela of iscxekiiiAg difilculty. 

► Excellent fl.pl H-sci-eon scrolUng, 

*■ Intaresttng control f«atura in tha 

crizza. 

>■ Tfice rajige of game-altering optldiie. 

>■ Competitive two-player aetien. 



■ Ji a w t w % 

^ Gameplay can get quite repedtive, 
*■ The graphics axe small and Ordinaxy. 







GFIAPHICS 


68% 


SONICS 


6€«A 
82% 

J8% 


-'-'-I-I-i-I^^ggMHaBBJ 


GRAB FACTOR 




>:j;':':':":";:::'r>:^KSS 
via 


STAYING POWEH 


kh HATING 



AM3TRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 61 




m }i 





jr '' ^ 




■^- 



! 



/, 



■ 



»* ',' 






..L^ 



i 




Li ««•.*• * If *w 



♦► 



.t 



>i 



f 






>r'^ 






tiLC 






.<^ 



Ocean Software Limited 

6 Central Street Manchester M2 5NS. 

Telephone: 061 832 6633 Telex: 669977 






ACTION TEST 



P0PCVE 

Magmill^fi. £7.3S casa, jovstick or heys 



One of tJie cartoon world's most enduring 
charactsiE T10W appears in am arcade game 
where he ge(a Xa do what he always does; 
fight with Bluto for Olive Oyl'B. altontions. 
The game's main claim to fame i^ tin© large 
animated characters thai gallivant around. 
Popeye and Bluto look musclebound and 
mean. 

The 9Fune takes place on 16 screens 
where you, as PopeySn have to coUect 3S 
he^ts and give (hom to Olive. She has to be 
constantly supplied 50 thai her 'love level' 
doesn't Jail too low, Tha scieena are a 
collection of buildings, ropes, gtaiis aitd 
3trange objects that you can walk in Jroiit of 
and, in many cases, behind. This last factor 
16 impoilant in avoiding ihe dangers that 
Qcctu on mai^y screens. 






SECOND opiwrorf 

Popeye is certainly as iax^e S3lifs ia 
this game, S^jne ehsrapters tak^ itp 
prscticaHy s third of the screen - thsy 
ars big^andin itiosi css&s had for your 
health. An extrsmeiycoSourhii gAma - 
possibly averdone with soma 
sboniinAhle ct?}oiir clashing. Some 
hiimQvroas louchQS add to th& gsiRe, 
b-js notion g ovei ih& tcp. No lasting 
ttpp0sl: in fact I think I'll switch off, 

RpM 



Apart iroiti Bluio piovvling near Olive s 
house Iheie axe ether creatures. If any of 
them hits you you'll ha laid flat out. Only a 
can of spinach wiH revive yon. To avoid 
these coUision£ you need to dUCk iinto 
doorways, climb out of harm's reach or 
jump down to somewher^^. 

If you aien't carrying spinach or jf 
Olive's 'loveometer' iun» oul, the game 
ends. 




There are three main types ol object in 
the game; heat is, spinach and keys. The 
keys all look the sajne but particular ones 
open specific doors, so you have to cont- 
pleie sections of the game in the right 
oidee. There are oihei objecar a coin, fuse 
and bottle ioi instance, Their purpose 
should become clear as you encounter 
particular greens. 

Despite iha large figures the graphics 
don't really impress. They're too chunky 
and clash wilh the backgrounds loo often. 
The gameplay doean'f require tnuch pU2- 
KSuag, but yoii will have to do a fair bit of 
exploring uid trial -and-'iarEor before gett- 



ing far. Some of the places you can readi 
aren't iftunediaiely clear - lika gethng en 
the UFO and where you can get off it so 
persevHranc© is needed oven if it looks as 
if there's no way out. 

It's a dated game idea, but it's still 
enjoyable and has some good animated 
characters. 

BW 

riRST^DAY TARGET SCORE 

S hearts 



CB££N SCE£EN VIEW 
iotff oflov&iy shades ofgreiftt. 



RpM 



N 



VI S 



► Large animated characters e 

^ Ability to go in frant of and beJiiad 

(bijigs. 

^ Tough working out the right route. 



B 



N 



I 



w 



> Ckniiky graphics and garish colomrs. 
>■ Hat much puzzling. 
^ Annoying' to walk off the edge of a 
screen and straight into a creature. 



I GiUfcPHlCS 



somes 



GNAB FACTOR' 



^SIAVING POW« 



A A RATING 




STREET HAWK 

Ucean. CS.9S cass, joystick or keys 



Here we go agalrf with yel anolher TV 
licensing deal and ye! another game that 
has taken an inordinate dmouni of time to 
gEt to the shelves. Fortunately, unJike other 
recent release-^. >tiis one actually has some 
decent giaphic£ and reasonable gamcplay. 
It may not set your Amstrad abght. but at 
least you won't be stomping on the cas^sette 
infrustiation. 

Street Hawk is a motorbike and you are 
a cap Tilth a tean-pilot mentality' - which 
presumably means you like crashing 
things. This is just as well because you get 
to do a lot of that - both to yourself and to 
everyone else. 

The action takes place en a downward- 
scroUing roadway. Your bike appaars in 
the middle of the screen, viewed from 
overhead. You have lo deal v/ith a. group ol 
crimtnals engaged m crimes, while trying 
to avoid civilians and the police, 

The motorbike can aooeleiate up to 100 
mph, move left and right, leap in the aix, 
and siioot a laser forwards. It wiE meet 
several types of vehicle on th# road, some 
bad guys and some cnnocentf travellirig at 
tlifferent speeds, You can shoot thciii; or 
jump on top of them, taut only the bad guys 
get you points . Bumping intO the other 
traflic reduces the aimour on the bike; so 
doaa being shot by gangjiteTS appearing 
from majiholes. 



SECOND OPINION 

SoniiS fAitlynice graphics, with some 
grant motorbike- swsiving scenes 1 
enjoyed blasting everything tn sight; il 
my t'AS0F became too hot, th&n jumping 
on the osr roots made a mcs 
allernstivc yoti can only gs t * waiy 
with ihis briefly, for (he police wovld 
SQOii coins chiRrgiiig- iu. Try AS yon 
might, yoa jusi can 't shoot them (must 
hsve remiorced chassis). 

Pisying the gatus by the rules 
becomes rsther baring: th0 Same tasks 
to carjy out every time, Mako yottr 
wn Tales, plsy It your way-1 did and 
ihoiouglily ertjored it. 

RpM 



The first task is to pull up outside a 
nine Store L The screen changes to show the 
store on a corner. You control a cursor that 
fires a laser and must shoot Quree robbers 

as they charge out of the store for their 
getaway van, if you succeed you drive on 
to try to destroy the black sedan car of a 

kidnapper. Succeed in doing that and you'll 
hxva to rtfpeat the task, but v/ith heavier 
traffic to contend with. 




You'U usually find the police on youi 
•ail B( some point as well. The only way to 
shake them is to engage Tuibo, This clears 
the etreel of tra£ic and races you ahead at 
350 mph. Tiirbo can be U£ed only a limited 
time on each run. 

Not a classic by any means, but an 
enjoyable fasl-acdon driving gamie. 

BW 



W 



^ Good scrolling roadw^ay, 

►- Fast shoot-em 'Hp action, 

^ Progressive difficulty keeps you 

interested. 

^ Nice cart and Ecenery. 



B 



« S 



^ Wine-store scenfr is slirtpleaiid 

imiAteEesting, 

W- Di^jving and shaoting won't hook yon 

for very long. 



GRAPHICS 



somes 



GRABFACTOfl 



STAVING POWfR 



A A RATING 




70% 
SSVe 




AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 69 



ACTION TEST 




IT'S A KNOCKOUT 

Oc^iir, O 9b cass. jo^fstjuh w keys 



RemcjviJser the maniacal laugh of Stuart Hall 
and the airrjess- banter of Eddie Warmg? 
Well, sadly, this computer version wouldTi''t 
even raise a chuckle out of Stuart let alone 
Eddie. FrankHy I think it ought to be re- 
named it's 3 Cock-up and given away as a 
booby prise on BlankBty Bisnk- 

There are six mini-garnes based on tht^ 
TV saiias with six countries taking part in 
the compchtiorL. Up to six players can 
cOmpele or jual one player against the 
cotnpuler. bit^tspetsi^ with fsva events is 
ihe marathon, where one oomitry takes a 
lum at it bonvGcn rounds. Thts other five all 
hdppen at once. All the events are jusi a 
single screen, except foe the la^t orLe, the 
pbstacle race, 



SECOND OPINION 

Imuat say, it's good to aay Ocesin 
keeping up stsrdards and pipducing 
litrer rubbish such as It's a Knockout, It 
hss to- stop! Software houses must 
re^U^e tiji^t big ftdvetHseTnsnt 
Cajupaigiis snd a lift Of hype sisROt 
thf? otily fsctofs tiece^Aty to s&il a 
game. 

'lt'$ i ...tip' has patiietie squ&rs- 
looking grapiiics, ra^beiry-like 
soandeffects (v^-ish the occasional besp 
tbTOwn in) And amsteurish 
pnygTMnming. All this for £9! What a 
bsrgamf 

KpM 



Thf j:n~athon game is called Bionte 
Bash wherei you hav« id move a weight 
abovs six holes and drop it on the bron- 
tosauiits that appears befoie it ducks back 
down again.. As with most of the games it's a 
matt^F of bitting as many as possible wiOiin 
a. time limii. 

Tho first gamo is Flying Flans, You 
stand an ihe right of a wall while flans are 
thiovsm over it for you to catch. If you miss 
them they land on the floor and make you 
skid about while trying to catch mor^ flaii9, 
Harlem Hoppeis is riext: you cotitrol a 
eharaerter att&ched to a piece of elastic. Ke 
hftfi to run acfosb the screen to catch balls 
rolling off a camel's back. This one t&k^s 
very careful timing and a good deal of luck. 

The Tetanic Drop i9 one of those enter- 
taining watsr events wher« everybody gets 
wet. Four contestants will one At a time 




slide down a rope and you have to drop 
ihfini into the water at the right lime So pass 
through a ring in the 'water. TJie rings have 
varying points values that change as the 
game goeE along. After Titanic comes the 
Diet of Worms, where you control a bird 
that has to peck up as niany womis. as 
possible. They wriggle up and down while 
another bird also tries to eal them, 

Tlie iast event i? the pbslacJe race. It's a 
scrolling decattilon-type game where you 
have to waggle to move along and jump 
avet obslacles like a wat^r ditch. Log and 
ball. Each event scores six points for the 
winner down to one for last place. The 
grand total of all ewenls determines the 
wanner. 

The graphics ftur all the events axe 
really quite dreadful. It wouldn't surprise 
me if ii had been written in Basic. The 
events rely a lot on random chance and 
have very repetitive gamepiay anyway. As 
a silly party game for six players it mighl 
have some enteitainrnent value, but olhei- 
wifie it's very diaappointing. 

BW 

FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE 

15 points agairtyt computer opponents 



G D fi D NEW 


S 


h- Mulli-plAycf games naay Jbn fun. 


BAD NEW 


S 



^ Graphics are very badr 

^ Control is jerky and the game pace 

slow. 

^ Simple ropAtitivA t&tk«, 

^ It isQ^teTen funny. 



GREEN SCREEN VIEW 

l couldji '1 iJear to look 



RpM 









GRAPHICS 


16%. 
19'/. 
1S% 
16% 
13% 


SOfilCS 


GRAB FACTOR 


STAVING POWER 


A A HATING 



TIMCLORD 

Alp*iB Otnegt. £l.9P cess, joystick w kvfs 



The inBtrucnons for AO's latest axe sparse, 
to say the least. But then you'U have to play 
the game for only a itiinute to see lh«it 
they're all you need. The game is a 
straightforward exploration type, where 
you juat have to search for objects and blast 
lots of aliens on the way. 

The tas): is to collect the four missing 
places of your time machine thai are scat- 
tered about the planet Oiijenlesa. I'll bet 
you qan'c guess what you run out of during 
the game, can you? 

Three alieiis materialise on oach 
screen, which will also contain at least one 
cxii and some superfluous graphics. Going 
through the doorways f]ick& you to another 
screen. There ax^ several basic designs for 
the screens, reproeenting different areas 
like cave's and the planet surface. 

Th^ tht^ee aliens aira the aama on overy 



GLIDER RIDER 

□uicdsilva, £8.95 cassette, jov^tkh oi keys 



'Everyone has heard of the Abraxas Cor- 
poration - Arms, for Anyone. Anywhere, 
Any Kcaeon, Any Ouar.tity,' aays the paclc- 
aging. They are a mean btwidi, hiding away 
on their plastic island, EoO^, somewhere m 
jiud-Pacsfic- Producing and selling weapons 
is their game 

Paelhon is your codenams; you're a 
member of the SBD laak force - silent but 
deadly. With your maxk-o glider (coUa^ 
peible), E37 motorbike and nine hand- 
grcjividles, you are ready to !aJ(e on fits 
world -WeL EoOs at leasl. 

Your mission is to destroy the heavily 
defend^jd nuclear reactors on EoQs. Th^^se 
provide energy for the plastic island - with 
its nylon gra»s and polythene trees (no 
doubt tupperware birds as well). Oi course 
any sglf-r<;apecting island with nuqloar rq- 
actora would also have a decent ground-to- 
air laser delence ssysiem. ... [ thuDJi ihey 
have gone over (he top wiUi this. 



^^^5 



SECOND OPINION 
It looks and sounds stunning',, supetb 
3D graphics, a dnvmg best for the 
moti^rcydc and hghl airy tuji6 fin glid- 
ing - wlmf more coutd you a$k? A 
playahto game with s lot niOr& action, 
that's What. It's dehghtHtl S3 far as it 
goes but if only they'd put in fome 
easier t-ssks Hitd gratuitaus viol&no& it 
would have been so tttach better. 

BW 



Qnce you land on the island, Ihft hv«- 
littst music I have eiver hoard on on 
Amstrad comes to your ears - it is so very 
appropriate, continuing throughout the 
game. You firtd yourself cruising a rtvotoi- 
biJAe around the isUnd, All (lie reactors, 
la«r turreta. «ven tanks (stttilonary), ae 
highly detailed, making v^ry ple^*nt 
viewing -- even if everything is one colour: 
it obviously wasn't possible to dye (he 
plastic. Koweyer. you are h&re to cause 
desirucijon, notio admire the scenery 

'Objective: destroy extental reactors:/ 



screen but have dLfferent chaiacteriatic^^ 
Two of them are slow-moving and cimnQt 
h^ deeiroyad. The third te fast and homes in 
on you. but can be JdUed by your hefty 
missiles. This only gets rid of him tem- 
porarily, though; he remateiialisos a few 
second:? lateT. 



SECOND OPINION 
Lots oiscteeas to hfwl arowid w-9ii 
vory similar, though. Ev^n the 
characters ara the sAm.6 ttOm SCteen to 
scicCn; they are iairly drib Slid DlcJcer 
at All the wrong limes ft'ss budget 
game, and it sltovrs. 

RpM 



As you ta.cc through the screens the 
oxygen supply has to be kept up by coUect- 
ing objects. Curiously these take the form 
of money - pe^rhape there's a ^endly 
oxygon scUcr luridng around. 

There's also an a*e to be found. Tliis 
allows you aocera to other aieas of the 
game. 



10 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 



1 



ACTION TEST 




That's a good onie; t have si>feht hoi^^s ifytng 
Jo Cirry oul the order, -iffslh no Buccess- Th^ 

idsais to disable the lasers by bumping 
into whiflt appear to b^ pyl(?ne - this causes 
the iM^rs to go haywitQ find ahooc straight 
up in the atv. 

Rush to a slope utd US tM. To do thia. 
press aJl youi directianal keys. If y&u are 
lucbY yfitu bikd wilt ti-^tn^onn into a glider 
and you'll be soanng lugh in the sk^ ; iT not. 
iry again. Once ui the au, you should coma 
down Jow, and while the lABSFfl are dis- 
tr&f^ted. bomb the reactoi, tThose are 
spherical and hjvc lir.yf s5ot-like windows,) 

That IB the iheofy it leaisi, Putting it into 
practice 1$, well, nothing *hOrt pf impo- 



ssible. Eithef the Isser will spcl you im- 
medisiisiy and "Oiaiis, you 3«^;m to have 
bflsn frazsled," or you land m the aea and 
"Oops, you have been eaten by shaiics. ' 

Earring that, the reaclors seem to be 
impregiriible. [ bombed them a hundred 
lim^, and moihitig happened. At some 
stages I was viiluailv $i1t^g on a reactor 
and clwdting greaiadas heU for leather.-- 
Ints Hating, very ftHfitratLEig. 

I ended up Qying or even riding 
around the iskkd, admiring its beauijfijl 
Iand943ape. One discovery was thai moro 
gretudes could b& obtained fron^ stores on 
I&itd. And tjme is a linuting factor: only 30 
minutea tea oompSeie the taslt ~ aargh, Love- 



>■ SpoUt by iznpos iibtlty of the f 
^ Occastona.! bu^ will HHjuire 
restarttng (uAt»«laadibg). 



GR£EN SCREEN VIEW 
Theie wasn't much colom to start with. 

jbiif Bvervthing is clsaz, 

BW 



GRAPMICS 



SOfflCS 



GftAB FACTOR 



^XAimn POWER 



A A RATING 



5%:o 

\% 

.% 
'7% 










The graphics ^e reaisonable, but the 
animation of the characters iaii't very good. 
The gameplay is laiily repetiliyi& - juat 
ruRtiing around seeching and shfioting, 
The playing area ^ qiwite large, howe¥er» 



so there '5 a fair bit to keep you oxploring. 

Not bad for those of you who love 
doing maps: not good if you want a bit of 
variety. 



FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE 

25% 



B 


El N £ 


W 


S 


*■ A lot of DCxeena to expl«». 
^ Conserving oxygen won*C he 


easy. 




B h 


D N E 


W 


S 



^ Very lepetitive searehlsg and 

shooting. 

^ UTiitmpreBitTe char Aclei» and 



dj^LTnatLon. 



GREEN SCREEN VIEW 
!.oaks better in giettn fOJr some reason. 

RpM 









GMiMllCS 


4?V. 
16% 
51% 
52% 


SONICS 


GAAB FACTOR 


STAYING KJWER 






A A RATING 


bt;% 



AMSTSAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 71 



J 



ACTION TEST 




I 



FROST BYTE 

IMiKm Cm. £i^h ca&s. £13.35 disk, jaysiick Oi htvs 



Eve: flinee the WdiSy ^onos Mikro Gen has 
had fl reputation for excellent games 
graphiciu The n£tl<:oiitiiiu0» v«ith thu 
clBv^rly titte<j game, Anyone wh«'i s««n 
Slqiunojv will TcicogpJms the excellent noe of 
eoltmr and impressive character detign 
tliat featuiea again beco. 

The game itseU in much diffiaient. It 
stars A KrflBzer called Hickoy wtio loolcs 
and moves juat like the Slinky toy that vran 
popular flotne time ago - that apfjjig thing 
that somersaultB down the stalrQ, 

The Kreazer haa jujt eceatped frofn 
captivity, You have to guide him through a 
hazardous and icy cave system to release 
five other Kreezeis and get oii( of the 
cavema. He moves by CUpping end-ov«r- 
end 90 that when aiattonary he either point? 
atraighi up or is curved over in an upside- 
down 'U' shap«. He can also jump upwards 
and move through the air while drifting 
back to the Hoor. 

You enoounier many hazards in the 
caves. Same you can shoot if you can find 
some anutiuiution. The bullets go atxaight 
up when you'r^j vertical and horizontally 
when you're in the middle oi a 'step', Othei; 
cresrures just have to be avoided, while 
tataa appear to b« there just tin de<rar- 
ation. If you collide with one of the crea- 
turos or fall too Car, a life is lost. There axe 
repLacemenIs but they aren't easy lo get lO- 

As yoa travel through the caves you 
find coloured, diamond-shaped sweets 
which give yau special powers, when used. 




Red Ones make you m.ove faster, blue ones 
^et you jump higher and green ones aUow 
you lo fan further than normal- These are all 
c»si«ntial to the completion of the game. But 
watch out for when you're given a sweet 
you don't actually want. 



SECOND OPINlOZi' 

Thadn 't seen Eqtiinox so this aama as d 
pleasant suipnse. Hove the giaphics 
and tha t SJinky ehKTAvter. N^ot only 
doss It look goad but It's tough as weU. 
I think it's possibly 3 bit too tough to 
start with - you may fake some time 
gettingf off the first two screens - haf 
once you get into it it's very gripping 
stuff. Give me a few weeks end Tmtgh t 
crack it. 

RpM 



Even with the iweels you need som-e 
occadional extra heip in the form of spring 
platforms and mattresses - they give you an 
eittra boc^ wh«n juaiping or a soft landing 
for a long tall. You're going lo need all this 
help because the creatures present some 
Wicked tlnurtg problems that require 
thought and speed. 

Each Kieezer has to be rescued within 
a time limit before it is eaten. Being 
gobbled up is curiously called the 'twang'. 
To release the poor unfortunate you just 
have to get to the cage where he is held 




and touch him. 
Then you can haad (or 
ihe exit door - whicih 
leads 10 the ne*! caye 
system and more challenges. 

The graphics reaily are superb again 
with lots ot colour, $,oni<? great charaders 
and humour. The gamepiay is great wrth 
lots of nasty tuning problems and a pleas- 
ing variety of obstacle* and dangers. The 
five caves should be enough to tast anyone. 
The only problem will be slaying cool 
while dealing with the deadly opponents, 

BW 

FI11ST-D2T TAILGET SCOil£ 

s.ooo 




C1t£EN SCREEN VWW 

*'* 4 Bhanm t0 mint ,iJ} ttatcotoar bur 
evsTyttmig's viaible. 

BpM 



! 



TRAILBLAZER 

&icnihn. t9.95 cass, fit 95 di^h j»Yislick Or ksys 



TfoHbla^et is another game featuring a 
bouncing ball - like Bounder m SD, but 
faster and more dependent on fast relles;e«- 
Gremlui lives up to its ejEceUenl reputatiott 
for high-quality games that feature both 
originality and good gsmsplay. 

In Bounder you had a laoidscape that 
vcTOUed underneath a ball viewed from 
abciv^; here you view the ball from behind 
as the pathway scrolls toward you at a low 
angle. The aim of the game is of course to 
keep your ball on ibe comae aa it ncei by 
bemealh. Th^Lre are 14 different courses, 
each one of which has lo be completed 
withm a time tout. Nearly ail of iiem are 
ejciremely dMaili. 

SECOND O^miOMT 
This is a rea! tough ons ihst will have 
you gijt#d in front otih9momt0r^ It's 
just as weU they put in Ois practice 
mode bscsuSB evert Je-sminff the tirsi 
couple <iicoarsee isn't S9fy- Tks 
scroiling^ path is great, although I 
thought it would /la ve ijeen nicer to 
have a lArger ball. This one really put 
me through my paces. For anyone who 
likes last actt'oji this is terrific. 

RpM 



Each cDiirae is made dp Of five lanes, 
and each lane le broken up Into squares so 
as to form a grid. The squares come in 



different coleufs that have different flfFscta 
on Che ball when it hits them. And of course 
th«y aro tntorspeised with gaping holes in 
the path which have to be avoided. The 
•quake's properties can be used to avoid 
the holee, But if you fall into one you lose 
vahiable time and can mess up the rest of 
the eouxis through bad positioning at the 
restart. 

The four spi^cia] coloured squares are 
white, yellow, gre^ti and blue. White 
causes you lo bounce, yellow ^eeds you 
lip, green ste^^ yoti to vurtwxily a stop, aitd 
blue revftcvea tho co&trels. You'll need to 
tiB« whita and yeUow stiuares a tot lo 
complete courses, Tlu& gxeen and blue are 
nollting but trouble aiid can really mess up 
anm. 

J^ny of ths 14 courses can bs pracnsiod 
WiUl an increased timc^ limit sit that you can 
became familiar with it. In the game proper 
you have to complete the courses in order 
and agamst a much tougher tane limit, 
They aren't forgiving of mistakes 
- one wrong twitch and yotiU 
be off. And po»ibly you 
won't be able to recover 
10 finish the run, because 
you're thrown back 
OnJo the course 
movmg and may 
ba compleiely out 
of petition. 



GREEN SCREEN VIEW 
It's not easy telling which coloured 
sqiisres ar^ which - it can co^ you 
vital ^ht-seeorfds, 

RpM 



Apart from guiding the ball left and 
right, you control its speed- High gpded is 
essennal for compittmg coursjes in time, 
but tricky sections can be taken slowly. You 
«lso start each course with a Limited ntun* 
bei of 'manoar jumps, which are handy 
because there's not al*sys a white »citia)re 
there when you need one. 



7Z AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 





ACTION TEST 



P One or two placoe wlt«in« you cant do 
tauch about quick dMithB. 



W 



>■ Humoiu^iAa ajid hwU 'drawn 

> Tough timing problems everywhere. 
P- Good fealureB like aweets and spiing 
platforms, 

► Five totigh caves will keep you busy- 



GftAintfCS 



SOMtC$ 



CRAB FACTOR 



STAVING PO Win 



AA RATING 






rntST-DAYTABCET SCOIUG 

B.QOO 




As ever with Giemlui ganve«, the 

J£aphic9 are superbly doii^- The scrolling 

nHh gives a good Impression of ntovement 

kUhe music: U j\ice toOr But the clincher is the 



gamejilay: very tough but v&ry addicitve, 
The coujtea are eittremely hard and have 
10 be practised until you're (amiliatr with 
every pait of them. But once you are it's 
very Lmpreanve and gteai tiin £ooimng 
down them at full p$it leaping over and 
p-ast ih€ yawning holes. 



14 vevT tough coorseK. 

F^it, sccolliDg path glv«x good 
lanpTetflion ^f tnovem^nt. 

Waiid»rful when you complete a 
e0itx«e without a fault. 

¥ery addictiv? aa y^fi try to gal 
eottiaen right. 

Very limpla faaimaa that work well to 
produce a tough ^ame. 



Pattup* too fiui and tough tot wntw. 



I CFAPHICS 



SONICS 



GRAB FACTOR 



ISTAriNGFOWER 



A A RATINC 



7% 
70% 

83% 
86% 



■yf6 



0^>yk< 



ii-^i 



AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 13 




Top Gun puts you in the ftghier pilot's scat 
of an F'l 4 Tomcat 

Vector graphics and a split screen allow I or 2 
players to play head to head, or against the computer 



£7.95 

SPECTRUM 



TM 

Your armajnents in this nerve tingling aerial duel 
are heat seeking missiles and a 20mm rsipid fire cannon. 
Can you feel the force! 
Top Gun mavericks! Enter the danger zone. 




£8.95 



AMSTRAD/ COMMODORE 



Ocean Software Ltd., 6 Central Street, Manchester M2 5NS. Telephone; 061-832 6633.TGlex; 669977 OCEAN G. 

Otnui SqFiwvc: Disirjbuudtn FmiKC tf Otein hnte Jiitffant f l-4l'T 144, Cxinhjiie in. Gcrmmy br halwin. tittptvne, 2)4l-/00«9 

'"DESIGNATES TRADEMARKOF PAF^AlVIOU^fT PICTURES COFtPORATION anct U5@<i by OCEAN SOFTWAFE, LTD,, under aulhoniation, 



ACTION TEST 



PIPELINE 2 



Ef you can cetnembdr back to issa& one and 
out Amscyclopcdia. you'U pro^bably te- 
memiier a now-depaned softWiirc house 
calj«KJ Taskscft and Their game Supsi Pipe- 
Imo U. It wds a full-prico product ttien, but 
that was over a yRar dgo. Now ii'a still the 
ScUTLe gant«^ bul With a diUerenl pricetag 
and uhdei^ a dinerem label. 

If you reitiember rhe game from way 
back then, you'll juat want te know (hat ihis 
la fexflcUy the same game, But Yva Eure (here 
aft plenty af you who've joined us ijt the 
past y^ar thai d6n't know akoul it. 

The star is Forennan Tied. He has (o 
complete 16 scre^rts ol action by HUirg 
barrels at ih*;! bottom df the screen. At (In; 
top is a tan^k of water that gradufilly empties 
inro a twisiing pipe system, which weav«*i 
all over th« screen, and ev&ntuiUly flows 
out the i3iid and mto the barrels. 




While ihuf \& going on you are clamber- 
ing around the pipe system trying lo stay 
aJwc a«d stop creatures and loola - which 
sneak in from the £idge» of lh« scre^r^ ~ 
making holos in the pipes. Most of [hg tools 
cjan be shot with your gun when (hey are 
horizontal with you.. A tabetci, however, 
can be shot only from behind, and a ^howei 
o( tacks not ai all. If one or these «n«nues 
getB to you, you plonge lo a nafity end off 
Iho pipe - unless your iru.sty helper come 
to your rescue. Fred's mates appear two at 
a time und can be sacrificed to the toois 
withotK cost, for they will quickly reappear. 



SECOND OPINION 

IThia was an inunensely cfood gmmo tho 
first time it csmts on I. Today, ai a 
kiiOckdowji price, it stiU snams gocd 
on c^mpaj-jso" with nrn^ti othvr 
SottWATi^. The Hiti'Si i$ ^xceDtntl, /ind 

ofleiings. liyon. hnvon 't gp^ Super 
Pipeline II, then go out mud buy it. For 
£2, yon just csn 't go wrong. 

RpM 



I 



The helpers also perform tt\.f. (Ask ol 
repairing any leaks ui the pipe, so tli<}y're 
kept constantly buityn You have to lead 
(hern to the leaks beroiu they start work, 
and while iheyre foilowmg you they can 
guard your back from attackn 

If yoii: leave leaks too loiiig your wai^ai 
WiU slart to run oui and decres^e youi 
score, as it draws on a teat^rre supply. If 
you fill the barrels you progress onto a new 
acraan with more barrets to fill. 



OI^EK SCRSSN VIE W 

Certainly cI^at enaa^h tcpiay. 



1 



RpM 



The graphics Attd sound are still good 
today, although the same niggle remaijis 
about the characters going behind pipes 
aiid being obscured, After a bit o( practice 
ihe game is relaiivsly easy you find safe 
Epota on the pipes ■ but it'« Still a lot of fun. 
And it's cheap now as we]l, 

BW 

rmST-DAY TARGET SCOR£ 

lOO.OQO 







E 



W 



^ Nice cario^ny graphics. 

► Jolly soundtrack. 

^ Still a very original g^ame (a sad 

reflection on many otbex aoftwaie 

houses). 



B 



N 



W 



s 



> Characters disappear behind pipes. 
^ Rather too easy to complete. 



I GSJtPHICS 



SONICS 



GRAB FACTOR 



STAiriNG POWEft 



AA RAnm 



63=/. 
67% 
78% 



■:-;■ 




MIAMI DICE 

Biig-Brte, £2.l9f i;a$$. joYstick or kty^ 



Yet another gambling ganie! This one from 
Bug-Byte is a faitliful representation Of the 
Aiuerscan dire game 'critpa'. Up to four 
piAyers at once can participate; each Mkes 
a turn to bet and throw tho dice. 

Craps la a fairly complCH gaine, with 
many obscure mica, I'll giive only a vary 
brief sutfljtiafy, although several pages 
cOLild be taken up. 

Ton throw dice and bet on the out- 
come. A casino's bctbng table is laid out w 
a complejc pattern, with various bet lyjKJrt 
clearly marked in boxes. Several combin- 
ationa of bet9 mAke all sorts oi odds 
available. 

The person rolling the dice is obliged 
10 bet he will travc a winning ouicome. If a 7 
or U (called natural numbers) arts rplXed 
first, it's an immediate win . If you think; that 
is very favourable, then rolling a 2, 3 or 12 
(craps) will wipe the aitiile off your face. 
Any other number thrown, known as a 
point number, will meaii subsequent 
throws are necessary to determine a win or 



lose. Here it becomes more complex, 
because if a ? is now thrown, you autoniiati- 
cally Ipso. 



SECOND OPINION 
Oncfi Tff disc^VQS&d the pJ^yjfrg koys 
and tried my besi to ui\d&rstjnd tjt^ 
riths, there was revoaled a ^ottd gsm- 
bhng ggtn^r The t-'Jidracfors are^ quite 
en tei tJiining a f first - ihey hs ve to be to 
ksep you intarested.. Yoa'U hsvei to 
work bazd to gat to grips with all the 
various betting aress. Quc-e yon have, 
this is A toufthroittsiicsimtiistion. 

BW 

The bctlaig options wilt drive you iv-ad. 
The iristruclians left rae more confused, so I 
ended up placing bete wilhoul a clue what 
they were for - sometmves 1 wm lucky, 
Olhei times not. 

At the start of the game you can choose 
how many players will participate , and 
which characters ihoy will assume. A 
BCreen then pops itp ^howmg your charac- 
ter and three opponents. There is ofccurse 
also thij croupiers vvho tells you v/hal is 
happening at any stage of (he game. The 
foreground graphics show tho tabie with 
any bets placed and, when thrown, the 
dice. 

ThiSre \& a strange soundtrack with Qie 
game, I couldn't m^e up my mind what I 
should do to it - either take up my 
magician's garb and do con}urmg tricks, or 
grab the nearest young lady and wahz 
away. 

It ie a pity the cassette inlay was only 
slightly altered before being used for the 
Amslrad, There is no 'Megaloading system 
with Speech', nor do the suggeseted Iteys 
work. To help you along, these are the 
correct keys and what ^ey do; 



Ksy(}osrd 


Joystisk 


Flaysr 


K*f'/ 


Q 


Up 


1 


Q 


.A 


O-owft 


2 


7 





Loft 


3 


% 


P 


ftiatit 


4 


i 



It IS aifiusing to watch the figures in action: 
the hippie whose glasses fall down hia nose 
will cojtstaittly readjuist them, fox e^tample. 
Their eye movomeitt is exceptional, giving 
them a very shifty air, 

ThiB is another game tlval is nice to look 
at and listen lo but unfortunately is spoilt by 
having such a complex beitir.g system. It 
does get boring. 

RpM 



N 



W S 



> Nice characters, with am using antlcK, 

*' Merry music lo accompany your 

bctllug. 

1^ The cassette cover is lalhex 

jnterestin-g. 



g 



NEWS 



^ InstructlDns ore misleading and 

wrong, 

^ Play becomes boring and Tepeti1{Te« 



GRAPH CS 



SONICS 



GRAB FACTOR 



STAVIfilG POtftlR 



A A RATtWG 




AMSTEAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 15 



• 



ACTION TEST 



XENO 

A'n'F ,i' Argus, li.5i cass. jn^stick ar keys 



H^ri^'fl 91101:1101 QUO qf thj0Bd iniriguing 
games that is very simple in concept but 
strong on that mdefiiiablt) quality - itddic- 
tivG gaineplay. The action laltes place in Ein 
QvaJ arena with a goal at either end. On th-e 
rink are just diree things; a ^all and two 
objecis looking like a cross bedf^een a 
cream bun and a curling stone. 

Tliey are in fact the two playeis, one or 
bosh of which can be under your control, 
and they're used for smacking the ball 
around the rink. The basic id^a is aimpl@: 
you just try to put (he ball m the other 
player 'e goal by knocking tk? ball ajromtd 
with your bun. 

There are three Ecreens makincf up the 
link, tho ball (ilwilya being in Iho picituri:^ 
burthe players often bein^ oul of sight. 

You can play againsi either the com- 
puter or another player. In either case 
there are a number of paj-aroetaia that have 
to be SGt up that dclcrminc the speed and 
difficulty of the game, Onoe you've started 
you must learn how to control youi 'stone', 
You can actually move An arrow fra^ly 
around Ute rink but after a specified time 
limit it returns to the starting position^ If yoti 
pTCES Fire while it's away from you, the 
stone flies off iit that direction. 

The players alternate wiih their ax- 
rowB. But if you delay and don't take a shot 
immediately, the arro\v will disappear and 
youi opponent geta aiiOther shot. Apart 



SECOND OPENION 

This h^£ lovely graphics, albejl only w 

shaiies ofbkie. BitUhntj itgaiust the 
cowpvter »t the higher j'e vels can be 
rsaS joysiick'WTBnclung 3tuS- 
sh ooting your 'doughnut ' a t high 
speed toward the puck can be very 
saUafying. especislly ifyoa score a 
gcal in ihe process. May Isck /astiiTg- 
App^Al, biii is d&iinitsly worth a look. 

RpM 



from the goals ihe rink is enclosed hy 
ela,3tic sides, so that when you or the ball 
bounce into it you fust iicochel Off. 

You can set the amount of time allowed 
for positioning the arrow and taking a shot 
and also the speed ar which die oomputer 
plays. Th^ :naich is played over four quar- 
ters; you can set the length of these, up to i 
ntaximum of nine minutes each. These sett- 
ings allow you to vary ihe game from quiie 
«edata action and long mai^ches to very fast 
reaction piay and short matches. 



Rinky dink pi ink 



The computer opponent ia very toucpi 
on ihe faster levels because he's very 
accurate and never misseg a s.hDt. Kow' 
=ovDr, you cdn put him off his stroke by 
ramming into him or shielding the ball [fom 
him. The two-pkyer gwne is aiso * lot of 
■fun with intense Competition. 

Thi; only drawback with the gajfio is 
Ihal despite its initial addictiveneas there 
just isn't enough variety or Cealures to keep 
you hooked. For a while it's imjtietBe fun 
and a challenge but the lack of variety 
means it's easy to Ure of (he action. 

BW 

FIKST-DAT TARGET SCOUE 
Beat computer at speed S 







W 5 



^ Simple ajid addictive gaTnepIay. 

> PaTametexv allow you to change the 
g&me to suit any speed or skill. 

> GcK>d. ttaU. and crowd graphlcii, 

^ Cempetifive two-play «Fexeitsirn«Bl, 




Oardy 'S ihe m(i*isive arcide adventufe ihat takes you . 
fffbugh soif e of I he mos! tlftlaiied d^jngeons you vp ever 
-seed. EithBf soio or wilfi a \mv^) TricfiEl you can hack 
ItMjmftand iap your *ay ihrot^h ipucues necromancws 

■^^ ottiCT rfLnaffOr- ewe Iters whose concern lof your heailh 
and m'H -i3 erng' is ?ero ^ 

■:;r5 ^^..^ .x.- 

^^Vm nave iher reasons of course. TfieyVe fltardjno a 
massivgT'casuf^s hnarcfuvrtch you, i'ycu'rftciiiick cansiuff 
fnto ^ouT fci!r^'^ni9[yca3aciou& swHg bag- 

I, i — ^^ y.l 

idy is the ultirnets dungemi Enter at yc*tr peril' 



FEATURES 



• Treasure trove scr^efis at %en( 

• Or>e or Iwo players f 

• 5 ditlerent spell lype^ :— JL — , 

• A variety rt( nnsUes 



eathdungeort 



/|),.# 




m trenziea. inumQ-i;HiJsiing3CRon sot' ;j a i = 

7'^ 



^^^ AU11I &RI f nu- "-. ELECTRIC DHEAMS SOnVMRE. 

ZXSpEetnimJ8K.'12eit - cassette. .17.99 ' ^ SO f 2£WTEv : 07031 £29*^4 . 

computers -^-^ ?3PwirtVf^ef Hampsftad. — 



HI ' 





7 



Fctii yuuHitii uncofluuuuuiy dravvn into a mati^tiuiu m pjui:, 
aciioa as you bcc the challenge i\l ^'i*'- n.iKtgndingcoT^' '«!'»in of »i»l^c 
asscm!>kd lor your Amsir^^d 

Precision ani sIdU, speed and idlest!*, alertness and in^nirit^ art all ^ 
to be found in the imy of late^at releases. Huwcvcf good you 3it 
yon'U Bnd tt diHicoIi to keep yom head above water against this 
hnmcane ol software. / 




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IJ.S, QtAi U4, liHits 2/3 HoUort Wa^. HoUoiiJ, 
Bimiiiijinin BO 7AX. Td: m i5« 3388 



With no hope on the horizon - all that's left are dreams 



/ixH^c^ c^/a^- 1^0x4- 



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CfOLQEK 
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Things couldn't bo worae< Nq mon«y, no food, no m>p&. 
Until tha day of th« tolegram. 

Now you must g«t to Las Vegas. And Why?To win a million 
doltars, that's aill 

It won't ba aasy , you may not even gat out otyour holel, let 
alone surviwa tho ordeal ot the airport. And have you the 
Bkili, and ttia luck, to win in the Casinos of U« Vegas? 



Avaitabis on^ Awnatf d (Tape & Disk} 



CBU 64! USX and Spectrum (Tape onty) 




ACTION TEST 



GALVAN 

Imagine. fS.SS cas, jaystfdi or ke^s 



Those <:om-op ctjnversioiis keep osi com- 
ing. Bui down in the wiidE of Somerset, 
ppqpli; ihin,!*; »rc4d«6 are where you do 
your shpppitiij. This is oTie ol those games 
I've missed whUe tucked ^way down here - 
hui judgjrg from this vsrsion, t hiivcni 
iniascd rttuch- 

Tha gune iak6B pljioc in a two- 
dimerLSiona! care systcin with muld- 
direc'jona] scrolling. It's iiihabited by a 
nfl5»y array of aiicn creaturei. You conlrol a 
man dOlhe^ m futunshc knightly garb who 
has to battle through the caves to a demon. 
You have lo destroy the dom&n by shooting 
its pans 9cvcraJ times. Then you can move 
on to lh« nsxx tevel of play. 

The caves ^v& v^iiou? backgrounds 
includir^g brickwoik, wal^r and hi-tech 
scenery. The trouble with some of these 19 
that the coloiui haven't been ver/ wcli 
dvoseii: there is tittle contrast. The deft- 
nilion of iho charflcioif.9 ;s also weak. As a 
result cvfiiyihing on ^cir^etn looks indis- 
tinct. Although you can tell what's going aw 
it's like looking through an unfocuBsed 
camera. 



SECOND onmoji 

There ts, a gtwtJ idea (somewhere) to 
this gajnc- It's uiifeilunate that 
drawmg-ifonid ideas can 't^Jways £* 
c&zned lOTwaid inlo progTanumntj^ 
iBcknique. The screen js jmiiincule- It 
iust a£)OLrtr tnaiutges to St your 
chiiTttct^T. a hft of surronndsTig 
tiickvrork and, J you ars very lucky, 
d Jew iniUion aliens popping in tor te*. 

Not the wise'St choice ofcoiour, 
nor even the smoothest scioUmg 
Around. Faz that matter control isn''i 
too hos either. There must be 
som&thing good about it. AJi yes, iot9 
of nasties to stap. 

Rpm 






Th* s«e otthe scrolling icreen doesfi't 
help o|Lthi$t. It's very narrow, and as you 
move left or right it's practlnftlljf impossible 
to react to any thing that cornea straight 
toward you- 

As the knight rUnt into the cr@Alu res a 
power gauge is depleted. He can hghi back 
against thn aliens - initially just by punch- 
ing them but with weapons if he can find a 
power pyramid The pyramids put his 
powQi up 4nd give him a w-6apon. Which 
one dop-ftttdj On the- pow^i j^v^l- A3 the 
pov/er ruttfi down agam. (he weapon 
gradually becorrLe? leas powet ful until ycriu 
knight is back lo a Ust Pyramids are found 
just lying around or by killing space-suited 

f06. 

The eaves have ^veral Hooib You can 
get between them usmg stairs, holeii in Ihe 
floor or jumping. Borne area* have tpeci^ 
aliens, such as jsharks and stingrays under- 
water; Bom^ ha.vc nasty effects on you like 
temporajry paralysis. 



ORZ^N SCAEEN VIEW 
Was that s inick that moYed or was if 
jny ctisiricter? 

RpM 



The graphics, narrow screen and awk- 
ward scrolling make the game unimpress- 
ive to look at, It's not much bettei la play. 
You'll hnd yourself wandering around 
doing a lot of ahooting. which achieves little 
^itciept 10 gain you the odd pyraimd. Cor- 
tatnly not one of the better coin-op 
convflisioRf. 

FISST-DAY TJLRGET SCOKE 
2O.D0C 



N 



W 



> Change of weapons adds intexest. 

► Quite large areas to cMplore, 

¥■ Some nasty varieties of monsters. 



B 



W 



S 




^ Very aart ow sereen display conLblned 

with awkward screlling maket play 

diffLculi. 

^ Graphics lack contrast and dtefuittiDn. 

¥■ Cameplay coiici;ts meE^ty of 

wandeting around searching for the 

denioR. 



GMf>H)CS 



SONICS 



I GHAB FWTIW 



SUVtNG POWER 



A A RATING 



QVESTOR 

Cescade, CB.9S ca». C13.95 rtisk, jovslich or hirvs 



It doesn't take much to work out that you're 
Irying to imd something: the liile gives that 
av7ay. And you'll soon find out that you've 

got to do !t on a flying carpet. Tho qaest is 
to find and rescue the daughtor of tha 
Nawab frorr. some nasty catacombs whore 
tihu's ijnprisoned - and that involves solv- 
ing a good many problems. 

Yon atart dcop within the caves and 
spend the whole game flying about on the 
carpet This airborne doormat is quale awk- 
ward to contra] and you'll die many times 
early on trying to ntaatei it. 

The caves are inhabited by all manner 
o( ovii creaiuro£ th^t appear on most 
screens, moving in patterns up and down 



There are quite a lot of objects and 
loeanons to find. Many of them aie hajd to 
get to and involve ^ugh tirmng problems 
and removing obstacles from your path. 
You can carry only ihree ob/octis s! a time. 
When you come to where the object can be 
used •• ior opening a door, say - ti happens 
automatically. There are some flaaMng ob- 
joctg ihat you can't pick up but which act aa 
clues for you to work out. 

The graphics and sound aie ordinary 
with little to commend them. Moat of the 
tasks are fairly strajghtforward as well, just 
needing a lot of blind! eKperimeni. The 
control is the most annoying leature: on« 
twitch in the wrong direction can put you 
into the clutches of a moiuter and lose one 
of your precious few live*^ There's enough 
challenge (or ardent axcadd-adventuxcra to 
plug away with, but there's nothing very 
»peciaJ. 

vw 

FIftST'»aY TARGET SC Olt£ 



GREEN SCREEN VIEW 
Good colour fJto^fi^ -■ •^volylh^^q.!s 

RpM 



_G n N E W_ 

1^ Lota of objects and locations, 

I* Tough BKplDring with puzzles and 

dming problems. 

^ Wide variety of features and 

problems. 



SECOND OPINION 

Uyou rani an alien acadcntaUy, you 

wjjJ .fi'rrcf yon jre stjicksnd all your 
^nargy dr^ns exceedingly Last. The 
WAlls must also ha v0 some farm of 
itdhesive- you can'! just glance otF 
them - you remain Urinly embedded. 
This game is too d^tnsnding, .sjtd if 'if 
rAiber o!d hat. 

npM 

or acro&s the screen, The creatures either 
drain your onorgy or kill yesi outr;ght Thie 
is tough when you havo only three lives. 
But some of the monsters can be zapped 
With weapons and objects found in the 
caves, Unioriunatety fmdmg out what does 
what, where and what to do about it (what?) 
ts a matter of (rial-and-etror and many losi 
games. 

' "^lAMSTRAD ACTION 





ACTION TEST 




i 



ICON ION 

Mirroraoft, fS.95 tass. E13,8&{lisk, joystiek ork^? 



A great idea for a game, this: a program 
trapped inside your computer thai doesn't 
waKi lo die when you switch ofi, 

Yova taalt. of couru*, is to aid an^ abet 
thje rebel progxom, Icon joa. and got him 
out ot ihe computer before (he power goes 
oK To mAn^ge that you've got tfy complore 
many pijastle* snd: e«plOT& the weird in- 
stidcs of ihc coittputcv. 



SECOND OFINION 

On i&sding the msfmctions to this 
§Am0. Ilh0ught tlaif ivsa definitely for 
me. Uttfoituiiitety it was iirudr haidet 
than J bad aitlicipatsd: 1 was barely 
^hf& 10 lea ve ths fiist sciSsn mOtttut 
death standiag ov^r m». 

After SQrersJ aitsntpff 1 really 
started to cn/oy the g^unc, with its 
Aumoiir. ehixpy chAtact^f$ And oAerj 
devious puzzles. If you snjoy siUy 
jokes, snd doji't Sing^ th« computer 
into the rubbish tip afl»t faifitig 
irascrably for Lhc arst low ^ittcmpts, 
^en ihi? gHnta ts n must. 

RpM 



"^iMt scToens axb sho'ivn in ZD, And you 
move t>eiwe«n eh«tn by going off eitlter 
odgo 9X 'wio' a doorway i?y pqsHttig up. 
Faicti jocftiJpn has a naftii; - inosi of ihcxn are 
piui3 on (h« a<Mtt3l pajrta ihal raaks up a 
compute!, such as the redundani inierpffe- 
ler and (he k^ety bii (keyboard). Scat- 
tered aiound tie locaiione are objects 
wtucl) may nol have any inuncduiEc appa' 
iwit use but wi^ }i«lp yout complete th^ 



i 



i- 



v*^ 



^ , U^r^r^, 



Two other characters in Qie game 
move arQund freely among all the loc- 
ations. They can provide inv^tluable h&Ip 
They're osUed Andy Cspacsior ^d Chitrlie 
Chipliii. Ajidy 19 a Rorthctter and Charlie a 
fttuck^iip southern snob. You communicsK;' 
with them, and perform all other actions m 
the game, using a 8«i oi scons and window 
menus. The ipons allow you to perform 
many different tasks while ihe; menufl pro- 
vide aU ^tc$ of helpful intoxntcttion, 

Th^ra as'^ ten tcons: status, chat, tei- 
mfnat, manipulate, act, move, note, help, 
Siya a^d quit. Chat lets you talk to the other 
ditaiacl^rs on a number of subjects so tk^t 
ybu can make them friendly snd more 
helpful to your caus^. The status opiion tells 
you how Andy and Charhe are feeling, aa 
woU as how you're doing in the game, 
while the help icon leUs you where they 
are. Terminal puta you onto a computer 
terrmna! if you're standing at it, where a 
menu of optioTis will be given to you. 

Manipulate and act twth involvft han- 
(llt)t<j Ihe m.iny objects you can find- Yon 
can pick them up, drop them, examine 
them and give Them lo oUier characters. 
You can a3so try !o use them or more 
Specific-ally dig, rub. wave, hit or combme 
th«m, Ono olhei handy feature is the note- 
pad op which you ean keep track of your 
progreas and jot reminders of what you 
need to do 

Ab you et^tpior^ Ehe computer there are 
various areas that ca::t*t bo entered wiihoul 






the right object- il yoii do try lo enter 
without a Icay' then an eaiergy gauge de- 
creases, The game end* when one of three 
things happaiis: a 3£>minuto time lim.it runs 
out, energy runs out, or you escape. 

Th« graphics atkI sound aien't spec- 
tacular but the puzzies, icons and menus 
make the gameplay absorbing. It's a bit 
tough to begin with, until you work out the 
memory nup near the start location (te- 
member to use the 'breadcrumb' lochniquo 
of dropping things to show wheie you've 
already be*ti}. Once you're well irtto the 
game there are plenty of objects, pussies 
and humour that wiU keep you baahing 
aw'dy for many an homi, 

BW 

FIRST-DAY TABGET SCORE 

15 V* 




W ♦./' i-' %/ 



/"' 



i I 



m 



wmmmmmmmmmmmm 



, , — — ^„^ y. 



T in; 



■«ieiaMMNIHIMSSHtMHH(inMn««MfllMfa«HH^^ 



H^fMaiw i ii ,u, ii u», i n wn*»illlHW 








^l^^^^^^a 



So tt»«t'} wiipt Ihe inwqtft fcM>l(4 IH<*'( 



J 



B2 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1936 




ACTION TEST 



¥■ Plenty of locations with EAteresHag; 

names. 

^ Klce icon And widdow m^nu HyBtsin. 

^ Characters to contimniiiCAte and 

fntof act with, 

1^ Lpts of QbJC<:t;S tLtid pMxxltt to sotve 

wltli tltem. 



U 



B 



► fl, bit tough to atari with, 



W 



GREEN SCBEEIN VIEW 

AbsoluiBiy no prabic}ni v/aitdeiing 
thiou0t your computer's insidss here. 

RpIV! 



GMPHtCS 



SCINIC5 



GRABfACTtffl 



STAVING POTftR 



A k MTING 




THE INHERITANCE 

joyiitidt or k»y£ 



Here's anoihei French game that has plenty 
of ^lennunta of Qriginality in both present- 
ation and ^ameplay. K cOirujB in (tiir©© patts 
in which yoi; have to ^scApo iiora y^ur 
hoi^lf catch A pfaxi? to Las Vegas and then 
makf; a imlliorL dollars ov^ittighl. Sounds 
easy, huh? 

The reason yo»i've got to do all this is 
that your a.uM has popped hsr clogs and is 
All ex'Hun!, toequeaihing ycm her whole 
fortune ojily if you c&n make that jnitUon. 



SECOND OPINION 

A fairly otiginai cona^pt here - a 
pieasstil sufpnsti. Ths graphics 3rc 
deiailed and colourful, compelling yo u 
to fiTjji over or exazTDJic every object 
Most AinUsiiig' vFas humpuig into 
stiother charscter: hs (orsh&) would 
gsii^T^tiy dcmsnd an iS^jrt on yotiT 
person. The prahlQm is Chat when I Am 
sSronl^d itt such d manner, the hr& 
batten gists a good bcssis^tg. This do&s 
ito good at aU. it a ggtAvates thsm, 
causing iuTthei demands ra JtjepJaoed 
upon your shoisid^rs 

The Inheiilance Jidsmoie than 
^inoiigh to hold your interest - if you 
don't iiko meeting other psopls, or 
cvQn milling aroand airports, ttt^n I'm 
sure you 'Aroiildn f rcjuct a good 
spending spree at the Lss Vegas 
casiitoi 

RpM 



At the start of th,^' gajne you le placed 
in yoai grotty apaitment on the llfii Ilooi of 
* hotel «id given S200 and an airline tidfiet 
lo Las Vegas. Vour firsi (4s.k, <iTid probably 



the tcmghesi. is to got out of the building. 

Tlte room is pictured as a single screen 
which y<ju csjt explore ymng a cutsor. 
Placing it ov^^r ait object and preetutg Fire 
may cause you lo piqjc i\ up or roveal its 
contents, For inslance, there's a bag which 
Virill come in handy, and lots of Qbj«cls ui 
cupboards and drawers. Once you've got 
what you need you can place the ssirsor 
over the door and head out into the 
corridor. 

Einch floor has a single corridor: a lift 
and stairwell on opposite 3idea in tho mid- 
dle, and rooms along Ejiilhei Sid's. You oaii 
move along the corndor and turn around 
using (he cursoi. If you turn to face a door 
you can nng the bell to sec if anyone's 
honte or jusi try lo go iii oit your own. 

The problem with this leisurely inspec- 
tion i* that you've got only a few minutos to 
g'et to the iiiiporl and had better look lively. 

Heading lor the lift or the tttitiis you'll 
encounter the main problem: the building 
is full of people you owe things to. U you've 
got the fight thing to give back to them 
they'll go away and not bother you again, 
othoiwise Iheyll post Br you inccstafinlly, 

The people appe^tr dis hoad-aitd- 
shotild&fs picluies wiih animated mouths, 
all lookin«]r hke characieis Itora a cartoon. 
Th&y aren't all bad for you, but if you 
happen lo offer ihom the wrong object it 
might be congtjrued as * threal and bring .ill 
sorts of trouble down on you. 

When you nxanage to gel to tht' ground 
Qoor yoil've got SnOther knotty problem: 
how lo get !o the airporl. But I'm sure a 
resourecful individual lite you can cope 
with that. 

The airport is the second prti't ol the 
game and involves you snteJy geiimg onto 
the eight, surviving some unexpected hap- 
penings and catching a bus to Ih© eafiiftOA at 
Las Vegas. There are a ntm^bei of different 

problems to solve and things to do to insure 
success. Tnal-and-erro!" 1,3 youf beer 
method of discovery. 

At Las Vegas there are three lypos of 
game you can play. Some oUicr places 
provido ways of raising more mor^ey if yoa 



get lucky or observanl. The games are 
frait-m^chincs, crapa (dice), anda nuntborv 
gaiwa caUed boule. You'll find it tough to 
make money very quickly on the tables, io 
10 make the nulliiott you'll have to plug 
away for a long whi|«. 

The graphics b all sections are eKceU 
ani, leaiunng ifiieresting characters and 
locations. The problem-solving ia most evi- 
dent in the fins! game, wilh some tricky 
situations at ihe airport The gambling at 
the end is thrown in mor^ lor fun thnii 
anything else. I think this is belter than- 
Veis CXrtr^and mosi playem should find it a 
lot easier to get into, 

FIRST-DAY TJiRCET SCOKE 

Escape the hotel 



M E W 



^ Excellent gjtiphics far characters and 

locations. 

^ Oaod control over the realistic hotel 

envLiTDnment. 

^ Nice knotly problems ta wOik Out. 

»■ Thvee parts should keep voti ^oing for 

ai while. 



e 



D 



N 



E W & 



*■ You may get a frustrated i^tti the 
eonstcint need for trial and error. 



GREEN SCREEN VIEW 

Tlte graphics iose out hare, 
e very ^ling looking mlh^r dull and 
drah. Sat ihk does not soriosisly alfecl 
th& gameplay. 

RpM 



6RAPHICS 



r SOMItS 



GRAB FACTOR 



[staying PDWf R 



r A A RATING 




i 




One of 1*1* 
ur.plsasqnl 
iriiabbldrts of lh«: 

twiet 

AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 83 



PREVIEWS 



WAR 

Martecfi 



This Itxjks like being a very impieaaivf; 
scrolling shoot-em-up if one or two teclm- 
ical niggles can be Eorted out, Unusually for 
the AKifilrad, irs a sidf^wAy^s-scTolluig 
game. Thi^ is what's causing tltc problem M 
Ihe m&meiil - tl'd loo fasi. 

You cdntiol a sltip ihal skints over the 
SUrfAOd Ciif » RpacA station, and h^vQ tO d^al 



with rklicn ships aHaaking (on the demo disk 
we saw, Oniy liadn'l ^riived y&t). 

On the surface of the station arc ob 
Etacles - be careful not to Dy into them. If 
things get too hectic you can always fiip the 
ship over and fly on Ui.« other aide of the 
itlatioi<i, out of liatrm'a way. 

If the acrtjllmg is slowed 4own jusi 
enough, and when the aii^n 9ltipd 91^ 
added in, tlufl will b« a ver^ faAt-aelicin 
gam« and from a g«nre which is nt^w fo th« 
Amstiad. 




IKARI WARRIORS 



This IS Elil&'8 l«iti5fii conv^f&itin of a popular 
arcade game and it loolca certain to be the 
best y«l from that house, it'st an lutaahamcd 
orgy of violence and destnaclion that 
should satiiSfy the bloodlust of any Com- 
mando plflyecs and piavide a (remendouB 
test of anyone''s,pyatick skills}. 

Looked bt simply, it's BnotJier 
dowmward-scfOllilig shoot-em-up in the 
CozTunando raQuld. bul it knocks seven 
colour a of bruises out of its predecessor. 
You control a KambO'type character, and 
you simply hikVO 10 battle yoUr way up the 
route ahfiad, blasting evarything in your 
path. The route lakes yeu 4ver bt'idg«s, 
through sv/amps ^rtd pa^t forfs. 

B«9sdes bullets, you'te armed with 
grenades, which have a ttemendoue effect 
when you lob them into buildings t^very- 
Ihing blowa up in a. nuiES of debrvs, taking 
much of the (urrounding area widi it. Sol- 
diers are everywhere. As you progress 
you'll even lun into en&iity tanks ajid a 
helicopter ^un^ip thst tiamwiexg down- 
screen at you, Never fear, though, because 
you can always hop into a tank of youi ovm 
aiid carry on antaishing away "Ar.th ihat. 

The games graphioj aro superb: lots of 
coIouJh great explosions, wellndlriiwii 
spriteft. superb scroUing and plenty of 
variety. What weVe seen of the garoeplay 
is pretty unpressive loo' very addictive a,3 
you blast ottythmg that does or doesn't 
move. This is definitely one to watch for! 

84 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 




Wemer l^ a, Gexman biker who's aepa- 
r^titly quite a cult figure over there. If what 
we've flecn is anything to go by, ha will 
aoon be pretty popular here too, 

Tlie exact structure of the game isn't 
deor yet, but it involve.9 building a big, bad 
cu$tom motorbike and tlien rasng it against 
some' wicked opposition 

The bjke-biiildiing section of the pre- 
view disk "was complete, however. It aJlows 
a lot of freedom in what sort of bike you 
have from a one-engined Ghuffsr to a 
four-engined. road- wrecking, car- 




PULSATOn 

Martech 



Yet another promising game- Tlie preview 

disk here was in a much more complete 
form than Martech's other two. It features 
seme very nice graphic* and a iol of in- 
triguing and original elemejit$. It's COnft- 
poscd of fiv^ levels o( 4i rooms each, in 
which you control a aphcTO, The sphore has 
to find and rescue a Pulsy' on each level 
before moving on to the next. 

Iithabiiing the levels are other spheres 
thai have it in for you by domg nasty dungi 
lil(« dtainl»g your ettergy, dLsablit^g your 
gun, ktULng you inulajiilly and even stewing 
objeds you're carrying The gun vtili deal 



ciu:Li;hing, wheel-squealing angel from 
hcil. Of course, before you can get down to 
any racing you've got lo get it approved by 
the cops> who are a very finicky bunch, 

The race scenes haven't been com- 
pleted but the graphics v/ere on show. 
There were some very intcrtssting bits of 
animation on Werner. He performs vltiious 
action* indudittg running, driving, filling 
up with potjoU getting hit with a pie in the 
face, and vomiting m (he httEi posBible 
taita. 

Other Bcenea among the demoa we saw 
were an, impressive 3D view of driving 
down the road into fog, and a picture of 
Werner holding a joystick where ho mir- 
rors your every move. 

If these hilarious graphics convert into 
good gameplay, wc could be looking at 
one of the most original and funny hita of 
the year, 




PREVIEWS 



M 



I 



4^ 



't^-m 



TARZAN 



Martech 



with the Ji>addti;;ij li you.^*^ quick eAotigli, 
and one object will give you intmutiitY for a. 
tune. There axe also eiatic daiijgen Oiat 
have to h^ ^v^tched for as they can kiU you 
aa well. 

Tine layout of each level ta the major 
probiem: it's a maze with code-numbered 
gat«s everywhere. You need (o pass over a 
numbftTAd oensai to opon a gate, but 
traveliuig over il again closes Ihe gate. This 
rtieana yau must work out some contorted 
routes through otia-WAy ooiiidojis aitd 
gates while beiiug harried byd various 
robots. 

The gameplay and -graphic Idok «ix- 
oeUent. This production uhould certauiEy be 
fiiushed in the very near futut^t so keep 
"emp«<ledforit, 




Edgar Rice Burroughs' leyijndaiy jangle 
hero haB found hia way onto computers, 
and aB you can see from our competition he 
has no interiDon of keeping quiet about it. 
Somethirtg Martech hop«9 to put in the 
game is a digitised Tafzon yell. See if you 
can do botter and win a gr^at prize. 
The game is gowg 10 be an axcuadc adv* 
entu£$^ aet in the jungly, ruili3 and temples 
whei0 Tarsan aearchet for his beloved Jane> 
She's be«n captured by a tribe of natives 
demanding the return of their precious 
gems. PUying the role of Tarean, 
you've gtyi to get them back. 

Ttie jujigie and 
othoi locations are represented 
in an interesting and attractive 



screen design. Tarzan can move left and 
right along paths with picturesque scenery 
in the background, but aiao with shadowy 
objecrs m the foreground. This creates an 
atmospheric 3D impression in which most 
ambitious Tarzans should be very happy. 

On his search Taizan Will need to find 
and U3G many objects. At one point he ev^n 
needs the help of a hairy friend. Some of 
these objecte may not be immediately obvi- 
ous to see or to use, but you'll soon learn 
when you start picking them tip. 

The other major feature of the game is 
the threat presented by the jungle's other 
wild inhabitants. You'll need well'honed 
reactions to fight o£f of avoid all manner of 
adversaries; big CBta, Rinakes, spear- 
throwing luttivea and rolling rocks. You can 
use combat moves including somersaults, 
kicks and punches - so there's plenty of 
room for section. 

The gameplay wasn't much in 
evidence on tk& demo version wo s^w, 
because the various elements ar*^ atiU 
being pulled together, but the graphiea 
laoked good and the rest promises wslii. 
Gel youi lungs tuned up for this one so you 
can yodel along with the 

ape man. 





^ 



First prize 

^ a loincloth 

► a giant python 
^ a rubber chimp mask 

► a cuddly toy monkey 
►- and a copy of the game farzan, from Maitech 

30 ninners-up 

I*' a copy of the game 

Your task 

Produce a Tarzan yell, by one of two methods: 

►^ put a yell onto audio tape, and then digitize it using oui Type-in on pages 26-27; or 

►- produce a program that makes a yell. 

Send your entry on a tape or disk - a computer program, not audio. K you want it returned, say so and 
make sure your name and address are clearly legible and stuck firmly onto it. 

Post to '*Tar2an comp", Amstrad Action^ at the Old Bam, Somerton, TAl 1 SAH. 

Entries must reach ua by 18 Deceniber 1986. 



s-j.-l-.-- i^-.^>.->;. 



TW UMi'S'^"" 

I'^KONM/II 



Coming Soon for 
SPECTRUM E7,95 



ScrsBn shots (ri>in Arcade vers ton 




Available from all leading retailers and 



COMMODORE 64/128 CASSEHE E8.95 DISC £14.95 '" "se ol difficully send cheques or 



AMSTRAD CPC CASSEnE£B,95 DISC £14.95 
M5X CARTRIDGE £15.95 



postal orders to: 

NMC LTD., PO Boi 67, London SWIt IBS. 

Tel: at 226 673D 



\ 





k™,. .our ..n»« -^s: 'f: iT*:.^;:? ^t^f^ 

us GBi.1 »«■< Walt n«"»V; »";,7 j„ t™„!,k, t).^" « 
"^swH »; Aftershock, tfy'-'-y .«, ,|,« h«.. 



I 




Leather Ooddesses of Phobos 

InfacDm/Activlcien, £24.99 (UbIc on\j 

The time: around 3 a.m. 

The problem: «t dozy Pilg has just awakerted, his I^ostlrils 
(Uring wifh ihe hideous seem of mothtulls, subtly blended with 
the aroma of a pi^z.^ that has luatured lor months m a pujblic 
lavatory. 

The solution: crawl tuider the bed-cloihes snd - Yes! 
There's your Leather Goddesses scratch'n'sniS card scrumpled 
up under the duvet. 

Yes, my fellow Pilgs, this gamje has a real scretch'n'snifC 
card for you to gag over. It also has just about everything else 
yoa'd look for in a brUliajit adventure. Tricky puzzles, brilliaiLt 
ten, a whopping great piiceiag, disk-only spneciiiciition, and 
best of all, ihrse playing levels. 

Playing iBveb? Yessir^ Tame (yavsm), Suggestive (hmmm...), 
aod Lewd (ye gcMJs?)- And m a game where you must escape the 
clutches of the ttmiuacal Leather Goddesses who are intent on 
ueing you as an unwilling experiment in their hid'eouJi investig- 
ations into "How to falf^ over Man {oi Woman) Kind', you'll have 
plenty of opportiuuty for savouring all three, 

The baaic aim of the game m tc coUecl a number of objects 
which range trom a length of hose to a copy of the Cleveland 
phone book - and ihqjeby cortstruHSt a machine which wili 
destr^oy the wicked LGs and save your bacon. 'Tis v\.<3\. an easy 
garrte, but 'tis beautifully logical tn construction and like all 
Infocom titles worth every penny of the rather ^l^v^led price. 

Really this game is so good that 1 don't know wliat t<3 say 
next. Should 1 16\\ you about the titne 1 got humsd info a gorilla 
and locked into a cage with a f&maie of that species? StiOUld 1 tell 
you about wh^t happened when I, being in the company of the 
afareoaid lady gorilla, selected the Iiewd level of play? No, i 
abound not. 

Or should ] tell you about the brilhant touches of pro- 
gratnming the selection of youi sex, for example. If you enter, 
at the beginning at tho game, the LADIES toilet, you are 
hencefortli fetnaJe. If you chose the CENTS, you aie ,„ weU, we 
assun^e you are. 

Or shobild I lell you about the humour? As you struggle with 
the Mad Sciertti.si! who la about to strap you to the bed and cat ry 
out some fjendtsh experiment, you type m desperation; "KILL 
THE MAD SCIENTIST". And what's the response? "Relajt ..." 
Aaaaaghghghg ! 

Or should 1 iniortn you of the painstaking attention to detail 
in the (ordinarily) unimporiant responses from the parser. For 
,©Kaniple. you try to TIE HOSE TO SWITCH. Well, you can't - 



f^^: 






7-^*.^ 








yp {^■>i 



^ 



x; 



and in any ordinary adventure you might be told - YOU CAN*? 
DO THAT, In Leather Goddesses yom get: 

'YquVe tied the rubber hose! In the third quarter, with forty 
aeconda on the clock, the scoie is tubber hoae 17, player 171 It 
But s^sriously. folks, you can't tie the rubber hose, ' 

Wall, seriously, folks, even if you can't tie tlie leather hose, 
you better go out and add this one to the collection. It's not only 
very antusing, wtitlen by Steve Mcreisky of HitchhikeTs and 
Sorcerer fan\e, packed with features, brilliantly designed, and 
con\plele with scratch' n'sniff and 3-D glasses - it's also quite 
disgiistitig, and all ir, the best possible laste. 



ATMOSPHERE 
INTERACTION 
CHALLENGE 
AA HATING 



After Shock 

Inter ceplor. £9,95 cass, £14,95 disk 

This game wm previewed by the Pilg last month but a bugged 
copy prevented mo from getting very far. Now Iritergeptor 
have kindly sent me a working veiraion - how doos it play? 

Well, not quite as well as Fd hoped, 1 have to admit, though 

AMSTfiAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 87 



► 




i 





'* n 




V 



>4V 





f 



4^ 




Ba&ed on Judo, UCHI maTa, fe probabty 
the most actvarjced and challenging 
martial arts simulation to date. 

AM the skills 'n'spHls - without the bnibesff! 



Sptctnim 4aii^3 Caurtfr ti .95 



Amrt'«J464 664'6fSft 
Cassette £9 95 Owe t1 3 95 
MSJt Cassette €9.95 



fechniul CDTStj'tant Bnan imJa, 
comptevir-i^ a succcisful IX( II- 
M^ orte or Ove nun/ excitliig 
ttmuMS inccxi>cr3f«J in the ^sme. 



Brian Jacn received nis Qiiack belt, 
1 it D*n, when onfy 1 &, He ii now 
a 7th Pan, an eHic world group 
Hivirig won tht Dntish 
C fwmpiomhip eleven times, ttie 
C5pen Chan^^ikamtipftvc Qmaf the 
Curoped^n OwmpBrnhip four 
timm ^d ^n. Oymprc MedaJ, h^ it 
one of Ih* moit knowtedgcatjle 
^d roreim<i$i ejip^rwrits of Judo 
inlhe wofld. 



Martech is thcfc:^ter«d trade mart< of SoftytHaK CanmurMcottoTK UinltFd, 

M^rtecn Hous*, ftav Ten ace, Pe*«mcv SiS/. ta*i ^js§eir BNS4 6£E 

-mAf>E EMQUIIUE^^LCOMt PMQHE 10323: 76S4M TEL£X^ 878373 MrtecG 



ADVENTURE 



there's no doubt that the graphics (and the animation in 
particular) are superb. Ctuinnevs billow smoke over the shat- 
lered city, tankers spill oil. and although the jjicturos ate 
spread rather few and far between, they do add enormouisly to 
the game, Inteieeptoi have really made their name with 
graphics and this game eertaitily isn't goiitCF to damage their 
reputation on thai score. 

However, after you'vo been playing for half an hour or so, 
certain weaknesses in the game itself begin to appear. The first 
is the extreme fussLness of the parser, which makes itself lelt 
right fjom the begirming of the game. Take this for example: 
you are caught in a lift and have discovered a panel in the 
ceiling. Common sense tells you thai to esoape you need 
somehow to climb through the panel. Moving, lifting, and 
pressing the panel have no effect you have to REMOVE 
PANEL and nothing else will do. 

OK, a bil niggly, but not too bad. But then how do you get 
out of the lift? The panel's invitingly open, but if you eitter UP 
you're told you "can't go irt that direction*. Nor can you CLIMB 
THROUGH PANEL, or GO PANEL, or ENTER PANIEL. or LEAVE 
LIFT, or GO OUT or whatever. You have to CL&'EB OUT OF THE 







LIFT and nothing else wiU do. Now that strikes me as a little 
hard, and part of a general feeling of wg'akness in the deaign of 
the parser and the vocabulary that also means, for example, that 
you can't GET objects - you can only TAKE them, 

Interc«pior have gone (o great lengttis (o answer e^riticisms 
of their games - especially over the short location descriptions. 
Certainly the dqjscnpfion* in Ahei^hQck are much longer than 
previous titles from ihis co.-npany, but severa] of Ihem give the 
impression (hat they were not written by an inspired author, but 
rather by someono who kept saytng to hunsolf, Must have 
longQi: descnptionsr and sometiines the length is achieved at 
the cost of the stylo , 

Similarly, although there are lots of obtecls about, not many 
of tham Are worth examining; in la^t most of ih^nt are of no use 
ai aU in th'C adventure. This could be a good point, in that the 
player has to work out which is nt^t^dod and which isn'l ~ 
especially ssnce you can't carry much - but il would be nico il 
they could have more complex roles to play. At one point you 
can feed the arJmala in tho soo - a nico touch, but there aren't 
niany more like that. 

However, there's no doubt that Interceptor have chosen a 
good plot idea and the atmosphere of the game is at tirn'OS {fuite 
Bxoalsent - especially when you enter the reptile hou&e at the 
200. After playing tedt/ier Goddesses, a g^me like Aiicrshock 
seems terriiy hmited and one-duncnsional - but that, sadly, is 
a cnt^cism that could be made of most Bntish adventures these 
days !t>ecause of our contuiued re'.iance on the iLmiied cassette - 
based format. AfiQrshock is up witii some of the bener 
examples, but let's face if, the standard, with or.e or two 
exceptions, isn't that Mgh. 

Perhaps you think I'm being over-harsh. If so, pSease play a 
few miocom games and then write and tell me what you think, 
Even more worrying - play Interceptor's Heross ofKurv.. which 




must be all of two years old and then ask yourself how much 
things have improved since then? Personally I'd rate Heroes of 
KsTH over Aftorshock any day, even if only for style and 

originality. What do other readers think? 



ATMOSPHERE 


30% 


INTERACTION 


62% 


CHALLENGE 


1S% 


AA RATING 


69% 



Return to Oz 

us Gold, £S.99t cass, £14.99 disk 

TV and mm tie-ins have been all the rage in recent months, with 
Never Ending^ Stozy, and arcade games based on everything 
from Svpermoit to DoctQr Who. For the most part they've been 
pretty dire, but the Pilg had high hopes of Renini to O2 since it 
bears the prestigiouK Disney seal of approval - surely the 
descendants of Walt would not put their name to anything less 
than awesome? 

Hmnun ... Well, the fact is thai this game is pretty ... er ... 
Mickey Mouse. The Cowled Crusader polished it oil in 33 
minutes, which is my current record for solvmg a game from 
scratch. But before you pass on to the r^ext review in disgust, 
perhaps you should ponder awhile some of the innovations and 
interests of this little gamette. 

Ecium to Oz requires no text input whatsoever. At «ach 
stage of the game, the bottom of the screen bears a menu from 
which, using a combination of the space bar and the Enter key, 
you select one of sis options. Thesie are LOOK, TALK, SEARCH. 
GET. LIST, and LEAVE, 

Th« aim of the game is to make use of these options I0 move 
from one screen -location to another ajid renirn 10 Oz, where 
things are in a bad way. You must restore the righthil Queen of 
Oz to her throne, destroy the wicked Nome King, and outwit 
other nasties in the process. 

The gatr.e system works very well, given its limiiatious. For 
example, you press TALK and on the screen a little square wJU 
pick out one of the characters present if you can talk to Mm. At 
this point it's worth pressmg SPACE to see if the square flips to 
any o' the other characters displayed (if there are any) If it 
does, then you can choose who you wish to talk to by pressing 
Enter. 

Sounds 900d. but the actual gameplay is very limited, 
TALKlng, for example, sounds interesting but in fact dimply 




means gening occasional helpful messages from other charac- 
ters. The oti-er commands are similarly efficient in iheir 
operation and selection, and similarly limited in the effects they 
actually produoe. 

There aren'r very many puzzles in the game, and most of 
them are solVFible provided you have the nghT object with you. 

AMSTRAD ACTION" DECEMBER 1936 89 



► 



I 



I 



ADVENTURE 



I 



l^oe you can cairy aH lihe objects in the gaine simultaneously, 
diid since the progrant obMgingLy tetl? you which one will be 
effective in each cas«. you don't have much problem here. 

Retuzn to Oz could have been a very einjoyable game for 
younger players, but ! wander if it isn't ju3t a bit too limited. 
Certainly any PUg who's done even a modicum of advcntaring 
would find it very simple fare. The blurb (hat comes with the 
program says. 'While the atory cloaely follows the plot of tho 
film, it has been necesssrily expanded to make the game more 
playable and more of a ohajlenge.' If that's the case, i'm glad I 
didn't bother to see the film. 



ATMOSPHERE 
INTERACTION 
CHALLENGE 
AA RATING 



^extmon*begir..-^i-^;--Jt whole .ew wora ^ 

adventujfuig- ^ iL Id creatine Y^"^ '*'^'^- ?r^^er*.'ll be 
p,,>cess of wntmg ^^ " j^^ available uUh«e.^ Th^r*^ 
^, ,, by u«u.^-2 -^^^ ^,,^.g. P;-* "^^^^^/U 

So stay tur^oci. J^°^^^^^^_^_^^ ^ ..^l-;:v;-:':':':':':-:::::::-: 



I * ,1 .■<.■>.» .*,■,* 



r A *■ * il-.+^^.V 



Charts go bi-monthly ... 

In order to give ua more space in fumie tor reviews and other 
essential ilenia, we'll carry the Adventure Top Ten in every 
other issue from now on. What's teucx^, this will gjVD you all a 
chance to get your voters in and possibly quahfy for a free game 
as one of the legendary Lucky Pilgs- Dort't forget lo post off th& 
form each month to enter the draw, and to ensure that your 
opuuons are reflected in the PUg's Top Ten. 



To the Pilgfim 
Am stra d Action 
The Old B&TD 
Som ertoa , Somerset 
TAIl SAH 

My favourite three adventuiea are: 

Game 

1 




Company 



The reasons for my first choice above are; 
"Hie free game 1 would like if fm a lucky FUg is: 

My BAxne: 

My a4drev9 (BLOCK CAPITALS ONLY, PLEASE) 



Clue Cauldroa Special Jffen tf/laf 

Tfiij eaceJlent game was onginaUy released on the Spectrum 
and has recently been issues as a budge I title on tho Amstrad. It 
has some excellent graphics (small but perfectly formed) and 
some very untieual twists. The game was always one of the 
Pilg's favountes, partly because it lb quite tricky, and partly 
because of the extremely ... v^ell ... add creanixes in the game. 
Here goes then with aome vital hints'^n'tips. 

Ask Ogert>n for the Black Knife - ihere's no need to kill him. 

Dig in the sand and then hsten to the shell- 

When you go paying social caUa. to DZ make sure Timandra ia 
with you- 

Elva can make a longbow 'iVith the right knife. 

To enter the caatle, reseat; someone, reunite him with an old 
fnend, then go to the castje and wait. 

Saying Kentilla' brings you your sword, 

Tlie large Urga-Maul should be searched twice. 

Check in the scrub near Grako's tower for a boat, 

Elv^a is good for carrying things. 

With creeping shadows, green is OK, red is not. 

To kill Grako. hit him with the staff three timies. then give it lo 
hirn. 



Clue-sniffing 
with the Pilgrim 



I 
I 



Heroes <ffKsiit 

Oil the chest before opening it. Deliver jeweUery etc to the 

cottage- OriOn lakes yoU places. 

Seatfa^e Delia 

Enter 104 and 199 Stick button in with chewing gum [chew il 

first). Spot disk with telescope, get it with magnet and Ime. 

Secret of St Brides 

Type PLANT and &se what happena- 

Robm of Sherwood 

To escape from. jail'. Go shoulders, grab a.nlde, airanglc guard, 

search guard, get sword, imdc bolt with awotd, open grating. 

go grating, go door, go battlements, go door, go right, go 

window... 

AdvGiitiire Qaesi 

Balrog won't let you pass with the sun-stone, so carry (he sword 
and Etonc and smite ihe bridge* The vampire objects to onions. 
Cool the Dragon's hBartburn with something cold, 

Daitgeon Adv&nmr& 

Create a slippery problem for the goat. The poppy will help 

you get past the music. 

Pilg prize idiocy! 

The Pilg has to apologise profusely to one or two prizewinners 
who have yet to recoive their prizes. A house move and two 
office moves have pltmged hia personal papers into even 
deeper disarray than normal and aome addresses and details of 
prizewinners have gone astray. 

PLiEASE... If you have won a prize, either as a Lucky Pilg or 
in one of the Cowled CnjSAder's competitions, and have not 
received il. then write to me al Amstrsd At^on, with your 
envelope marlecd PUg's Pri?.e Dept. I wiJi then ensure that youjr 
prize reaches you without delay, 1 know that in some cases thu 
will havt; caused many of you inconvenience and diaappoint- 
ment, and I apologue most pr0fu$0ly if you were one of those 
affectt;d-just get meyour addy] 



HEROES 
OF KARN 



-^^ flAT 

^ TINYPLAHT 

GIANT CLAM 
^^ POTIONS 
-™ SILVER FLl/TE 
J SQNQ-BlRD 

BOTTLE 

CARprr 

•■(•I OACCEJ? 

El| PILLOW 
^ COIN 

^% SERPENT 
_.^: LIZARD 

FROG 

POO OF OIL 

DlAnONO 

EPJOEK 

rfANDOLIB 

rffl WATERFALL 
*^i, SAPPHIRE 

Mii WICKER CAGiE 



**^ WITCH 
HOMEV 



HEAL 
^ TINDER BOX 
MOHET 

SWDRO 

SPEAR 
BIBLE 



y' 



i: 



a^ 



« 

^ 
^ 



Eca 



SEAR 
SCROLL 

/^ WAWD 

BL^ GOLD KEY 

POD OF ACID 
CHEST 

COFFIH 

GO 10 EN LVRE 

BOX 

CROWBAR 

SHOVEL 

PHEONIX 

SILVER CROSS 







UP TO 



UPT-0 



t 



Lords & Ladies of Ad venture 



Cainp«iin»n M nanitf up » H« Mho C«a pat fhni luuDH into Uili liiA af inunoTtal beings 
-<rtK> ^^vc VMrtond (snh uiii> dui^ti and T«4unwd to :«U m,E? ute. Ooni tot^ui it you w^m 
VB ^;c))v «:A4rt wvd DmIU' Inendc kn I3va praca», 1lu»n drop nil • poifcaid wilh fcniT nun» 
■nd iddrnu tiiA ■ Itit of 9«mDi you v«i compleini. 'fhe Kj^^EHaui One will lh«n cotw^ar 
yvu fOf iHrCtuBHL D4a.'l tOT^ftt li> knclikdd your phixno numbE'T iS yoa wnh. bu; beU ul mind 
Uuit 'you mtf no ili Tt mmv wl'l, wrti^c't mi>i allur memberi (iryiMir}ieu]t«}'.i>1c) Urn 

U )^')a'n MiUWUltg' a uard oi Lddy oE Ajdvsn^iuQ tlicn plauo rHnember to include a 
■■li-4dd,joi»ed iumpsd tavtifrpe ». it y»u't« l«l«]^icratAg, w rinf «ia rcwxTiabSa hevr 
*/id .*riir4l thrae e'cldeli lh iJha morning! 

Lord* nnd L>adb«t, on U-,* ^chcr hjnd, ple&it rericiudr tlu! by eci^tring y^r nuita ia 
Oii« Odlumn fou «t« eB«rMQ te tvlj) yout f«U«<r.i , i» d«iil p«ii«Titty ind etfiCL^Ady wi^ii itifttT 
DEUjuiiiiri you wU> b« newuxlad imh fnwidiihip and - who ]«□«■? - help wh^ you 

yvuntivH M*4 it. 

Witrlard, Horaaa af Xtm, Jtinir ef SahyJaa, Forest at the iVof^di End. M**Mtjt /fcm 

AndfomadM, Saturn re Edan, Bmorti^ StSe. Ltrd* of Timo, Sr\owlMtJi Smuif^kTt Civ*. 

BTMomFrtw 

M)t4ltw Wlll«n, nnUrw Kill Cvtltgi, »nt JU4irt*Ti Wtacill«i«*14, ffl^tlfain. ISIB 

1ITO 

Lf^jid b//M(r Kti\^, MtibfiSt, ffovttr Efdir\^ S^ry. K*ntg* frenr AbdMnwdi. fenFl a^ lh* 
P«aliB]*k*W4y, 21 04lttt>l*«*, ClltlUrM4tKr,Cain£iTift, CAZI SXf 



Sia^am Fambcrlen, 11 Hmgu* Rvw, Puh HIU, Iheflleld) 12 SSA 

filittMtA □iUIW.Idl', tVf*tWf gndintf Hiarr^ Htitthil, Hfuces e! S^n, Me3Sj<f6 fmM Andrp- 
mvda f:fttmt « Woflftt Sit A Jeweit, ot Bibyiim. Fitiertld tilt, 'Arttiarct, Winvr^ to Ed^a,. 
tfcmi Jil FMtdis*. S&si ^ifiKn. Ciimic Ali\f^•n(tirc^ Msndoaa Qvett, Dxia Daiach tibTipen 
TItd OiuBiay, tO Oaxvrfn AT«nne, ttcundwe'Sd, M*Ud«k^ ft*x»mtf^, Clwyd, lilf]9 WLR 

Tt>a HifbSitf, TVni* KinfptOP' VMsfy, Hi^rocf ofilam, COrlte «/ Tttr^r, C^li^ttH Ct*t, TTrv 
Hiiilt. Se-teiHOr 0( C^jfRser^V* C»tii*:. Jktrait of U!i? ffini}*. Qimsi fcr tfle MoJj' Crail, 
Mtgieiant But. flo:uin i9 EAia. Snowlmll. I/Vann a PirsdJsf, Secret ofSiSwidea. Very Biff 
Ciw Aerosmie, Lor^ lO,' Tmta. £nwr^'4 i£^a, .V^d iVcmvi. Frtpe cf^Ms^ck, SasbsMO DelOr 

Pbil Sfmondi. 19 OoHilh Claie. Bound lEiiw, W>llLB^(iii.S(m*r, iT/li9EH 

Hutlii Cotit, 23 Ctavitnut Willc, Biitwpiwerlli, Brtilol, IS I St] 

ff«iliz3T ToCden, Wornt m ji'irtdua, Ej:i'fij'i.':^if;e>, Hotrtji, Lordr ofMitiOigtit, £iibti:flJr 

Cetotut Advomuro, Fiiivrt *l ihtr WarJtb End, K«d MaeA, A£ru4g« i^^m ^«tnun«dii 

il«i( Alrd, 1^ B^RLJMtl HMd, Hfidqi iUU, Hnntnihun, ■» SHR 

Sctf jWoct, Hotcom st K^rrt. fawela ^fa*by!oi\, fitvtMgaboniAndro^iiBda. Sett>i»a DtUt 
Chklilophtf £nf , li JlmBaiRoid, Iionden, BWll UA 

6fDtTlKH 

OtmtMim W>«*1tT, Z Burford Ctaie, SoulhdDwn, Bath, Avon, BJ12 IJf 

IkDJ'^ Ol' Midnights Soam^zkE Sevenga, Red Moan, Mordatf'i Outat, The So^git. QIattie 
AdvK\iarm. Hat <ry on iLhe \Ug'ek, Vfurm in fitradiae, Robs! Pltsos. XeatUia. Saab*** D«lta, 
HtfOtt e( K*n\ Twrrsrnielinsai SnowbtSli iorda ot iinm, VaSkyrie !7, :!w Xat Tiiiegy, 
Slt6rleck. Hampatead. Lent 3{ rA* Smg*. StfOJt s/ 0*siti>i\, OJWjfJJSHf, Xitbin of £h*fivtii4. 
Jtfibm (t/ii^rJMJf, An raitiff^rfit^r ^nzn^t. Spellbound. HuSk. Spltitnant, Jitt\tni f#£d'M 
Owuy ClBfg, 2 Spatland Tspi, Culguni, llBehdBit, Lanea, OLlZ TttX 

AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 91 



ll 




FootbaleroftheYear 

Ihe gun; bawiHT miybattiacd i^tsp -ftFchfUm- 

d^, tiUrfet dcm and nf jia ^ 

gpnn^ rd turi J vnu're ifiw 
tngt^ the ukitiHE KEtMc 

EJIhcYniirAiMmL 



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fcm First OlvisiDH 
jiants and opted to 
stay with Rovers. 
This promising 
c« ntre- back has si g r 
; ed a new contra 
I. team manager D 
;^ Thorpe annou 
today. 






attiH* 
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about his ' 
City. ,, 

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COafTenchr 
medical ire 

wtpcn Pitrrs 
fta-s ireaied o[> 



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BANKS 



lifri [he 







ALWAYS AHEAD 



Footbaler of the Year ^ 

Ci6*4 MSXSi>«Uiim4: 

,£6.95 iS7,95 . 

Aittflrad. BBC/Ekdion 



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Avenger 

lC16^4 CBW64fl3 
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The place ... the deepest, torn 

The plot ... to attack youi semes with the fine 

to the ultimate testatum yoi 
Your reply ... keep yom cool 
Are you capable of mastering the most exeit 




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jc ihi Eutili prior to f he 
■k are TeturniBg lo 
_ ii}iicsr. fr«m the 
cohtnrb QJ jffluf Sfifvahi jujtf f spjcccrrft, you miisi 
deftad the Ejnh jrotn rakwvtr by ihi' XtviMt* invjHJcf^! 

In (he event of youf sdi vivui]; wave ilia vtvtt ai enemy 
o^!iIatt(thi you will tiicnunttr (he maiitAUa^kia df the 
Xevious oiiciwiveT \ht knim Genesis Maiht:i iUiifr! This 
is jmi %ml A dirtci hit to her cuitiil reactor Will 
dinUe her, tkai do bdi 3!>e luHeiJ intfl a U\^ ffcnM: ol 
^ImtY' Xevitpus hijctTi will ^ocm k -appear to renew 
tiieii acticks will) incKisdi dEtcrnniMiHm! 



1 1 





Bob Wade checks out your tips, poke$ and game- 
busting ploys. The best ones coulcf win a entire i$»ve's 
A A Raves! So why not send YOUR latest gem to: Cheat 
Mode, Amstrad Action, Someiton, Somerset, TAll 
5AH. 

Po^ArerpIay 

Tony Hoyle of St Amies and Neil 
MacDougaJi qE Biistol have both 
come up vnth pokes allowing 
you to examino ihc pre- 
prepared question files on the 
Aicaiia game. Just type in d^e 
Hating, rewind the tape on side 
I and Tim the lisiing. Once the 
cotnpilei has loaded, you can 
lo3d (?ne of the quiz files pro- 
vided and examine i1. 



21 LMrcDipiler' 
ai POKE L92B9,IBF 
H CALL VmS9 



F 



Ktllopede 

This Method l poke fiom Shaun 
Bouine gf Oldham gives ywi an 
awful loT ai lives to bJaat away 

those insects, 



IB NEMDRr imrMK HKm 

R Zi 

13 IIKM:Ilt l,2fi: INK 2,24 

31 CLSlLDAr'scrfin'pkCfif 
4f LDU'lkindiscDbj- 
Si mm j;jtiKf,!;iiiK i,i: 

INK Z.lim 3,1 

&d LQA9*<k ill. sa?', Kill 



,23,34,44,23 

41 mti 36,3?,il,H,e9,2J,fi5 

,IJ,3S,:3,Z3 

U UU 3&,37|23|3&|be. 31,37 

,btl,c3,3d,fl 

iB UU 21,bd,3i:,3i,c3,23,3i 

,45, 23, 36, be 

71 MIA c3|iM2,N, 23,34,15 

j2I,9c,4a,3i 

Bi Dm c3|Z3.3&,3c,23,3£,b» 

,2I,Sb,73,3fi 

9nmff,et,fb,e9,c2,lS,4c 

,3«,17,cd,n 

m DATA4],c4r4^4a,c3,Bt,4 

3,21,76,36,36 

111 BATA t3,23,3£,lf,23,3S,b 

e.:3,fl,3i 

13« m rklElf TO blE77:R£l 

Hit 

14ff i-V*LriH*l);y=yta 

ISi POKE r, a: NEXT 

151 IF y()k29F2 THEK PfilNT ' 

Ma error' tEXD 

171 LOAI Mlmsll' X ^ 

lei CALL U£M ^1 / 




Thrust 

In addidon to our pJa^yjng guide 
(in colour - flip ahjead a few 
pages) Phil Howard has come 
up with his own nifty poke, tt's 
entered using Method 1 and 
gives yoxx an extra new cssntrol 
over your ship. WJien in flight 
you can hit the Ctrl key and it 
stops the ship dead. It doesn't 
Slop the pod iJ yo^i're cafiying 
i1, but controlling it i& inuch 
easiei' once youVe stopped. 



Alien Highway 

nfijiother cracker from Phil Ho- 
ward which de-electrifies the 
road edge in the VoitoK gamo 
to make manoeuvering a lot 

■ea.BL«i. It's «r.iBred using 
Method L. 



11 SITA 32,4£,32,3i,32,32,ft> 
,S6,2fl,l2,J4 

if MTA E?,B5,21,3a,fJ,3ft,c3 
23 3i 26 23 



If DATA 21,£3,n,22,lt,U,c3 

,4f,?9.Zl,e2 

21 WTA 39, 3fi, £3,23,34,54, 23 

,3i,bt,2],4f 

31 UU if,E5,21,fl,bb,iS|C3 

,b7,39,«5,21 

41 m ;i,f2,36,8S»cl,fl,f3 

59 FOR x-|BE4f TO U£6a 

h$ REAP it 

7rP0l£E ijVAlfl'titI 

8f NEXT 

n ftEHORY I20f f 

iff LQAJ'sli^n hi^lMI^* 

III CALL IIE4* .r-y 



Heavy on the Magick 

Ivlike Kiamiaf d of Colwinecton has 
some tips for anyone stuck in 
Gargoyle '5 animated advenruijre 
on how to deal with ail thos« 
doon. 

Doors are opened using 
keys, gold or a pasBword. If a 
door has a table near it a key is 
required; if a la.bie and a 
double-O sign, gold is needed; 
if pillars with skulls or wolve?' 
head?, a password has to be 
found. 

Rooms requiring keys have 
naities like room of Pride and 
room of Claws, These names 
match star signs found next to 
The keys. For qieampl^ LocJ the 
lion matches the room of Pride 
and Cancer the crab matches 
the room of Claws. 

Elemental s sre a problem. 



as they bJoek progress or gtiajd 
useful object. To obtain the ob- 
}ect$ a replacement has to be 
found. A pellet i& replaced by a 
ball, an egg by a shell, and a 
nugget by a nougat. 

To get past the fife you 
must carry the salamander 
clasp. To pass the hydre you 
muft have the snake clasp. Most 
moii;sler3 can be dealt with by 
blasting but other ledger ones 
tequire an object to kill them. 
Use the mirror on Medusa, the 
pellet on the s:1ug, the slat on the 
txyclops, the garlic on the vam- 
pire and the nugget on the 
werewolf. If you tnp. Into th^m 
Without the right object the only 
way paat la to transfuse till you 
have 33 stamina points and then 
continuaily freeje them. 



PoUb mBthods 



Here is how lo input the major- 
ity of Ciiea; Mcde pokes. The 
inslrttctions for each poke tell 
you which ol the mo difTcicni 
ntieUiods to use, \i you Mve a 
66ior 61£8f you'll have to type 
1 I ■>'.> ■ ■ before typing either. 

Method 1 

retake sure that you've le- 
vround the game tape lo the 
beginnmg, Now sype in the 
poke listing. Then type I^UN 
and press the Enter key. 
(Don't mse the key marked 
CTRL or ContioH thai would 
stop the poke Irom working.) 
Presji the Pl,ay key on the cass^ 
otto deck, and then any key on 
the main keyboard - the 
spacebar wiP do niceJy, The 
tape should now $tan to play 
through in the notmal way. 

Method 2 

For this method, you have to 
skip the first bit of the game 
program. 



To do that, stari by re- 
winding the game tape to the 
beginning. Now type in (he 
listing. 

Then type CAT and press 
Enter. Start the tape by press- 
ing Play and then any key. 
Then watch the screen. 

Ailer a kttie while ycmU 
gel the message 

" . i -, ; ■- .■■•■■■! Ill i( .jr - 1 

It doesn't matter what the aom* 
et/uii740tuaUy is: this wjli vary 
from one game lo another. If 
the mstructjons with the poke 
just teH you to skip the first 
bl^ic. you should stop the 
iap« here. 

If (he iii^i ructions tell you 
to skip several thuigs^ stop L^e 
tape when the i^ourid mes- 
sage comes up for the last 
Ihiitg you're trying loskip 

Once you'vtf slopped the 
lapo. prt'ss Escape, lype Rll^ 
and press Enter. Now press 
Play on the tapedeck and any 
key on the keyboard lo start 
liie tape ruiinin<}. 



98 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 






After yeofis ai negf&ctmany sirdnge dnct 
dangerous Jife-forms hoveinfesled Antori.The 
fuej-notf j SO ©ssenliallo her reoctFvatiort hove 
been token from tih 9 Power Chamber and kjst 
in her web of dada, chambersandrooms-Voy 

most locate *he5« and rehjm Ihsm to their 
corred' .locotion. Ma ny dongers \vrk oroynd 
every comer. Rgdicrfion wiiTpanetrtiteyour 
ACTIVATQIf $ <?u)<sr skin, Twti^ k ^ImftW. 




imesUi 



'• 







'^■V£<^' 



Hon-oQ^^^' 



1 



5 FUN FILLED GAMES 



K^ 



Virflin Cti4TKi preienti ihe iliiTd Janfeitfc Mmpilqiipn in tha MQW 9 AMIS ??(-]« . .,. j 
bflft se 1 1 ing ful I price gdrn^i on one to^ far Ih* prie* ck on* fuN price n«w onsl 

HOW ttAMM ^\*,^ wide choioof tiig h quality ggmai ihe whota family can «rijoy. 
AveilabbfwCOmWKVaOBI^HHHBnniM Wontt AJWSTIIAbCPC 



NfCICFi 



RLATSTHEiffiiN 



Wild Comet 

CV*f fha ]£ hci^i of iKe Royol $F G«4rga's ixiurba in Sarldwijh. 



;ecii«4i 



Vii|tnOeiMS 



Itporti yoif to o lend wKer* tvit i-rtu»i bo d*f* 



Qdv*ntuni ftatiMB^cot g naphki and gam*ploy * 



Qf« 



CODIMAMiMATfl 

Dtumrti 

ttne CapltiHn of C*fiturion in Ihit oxcirirhg ihoof-«m-up. Your ihipl 
£hi«ld«cnda1rcic:king syitwrn, butfrDuntutldKkJA'thAbaftiJc 
ifie attack i rig Mycrn f f aft. 



Mikro-'Cw 

hutnoui U M yoilr i ngenu kf y lo g«l the gong wMrkirvg orkd uneoMr ih* umk 

wqgof loft. 



torKJ 



SpMtL 



Uolho 



Lookout FofI 



VflWfOAKfU 

[hMMrk 

f I ■ KcrMH oread* adv«nt</r« bditd on Iha Jbnii^! J 
^the fiffel Tout^r, o rvsoui ^m a ftornin^ City I 
cnd*43i*Qking qI Sill«6i^ VaDiy. 

\ and HOW ttWWW Y iMll ifre prti vdlua nnHMvd 
liindtPICnVIHL 



NOWOAMC53 iftovQibbl^ 

FH«a*e moko you^ cHftqv>o oi j^v^^ 
NOW GAMES 3{t£9.9S, p'oov 
NOW OAMES 3 ts £S,95 (f*Qturei^ 

DCOiMiMODOfif 
NOW OAMIS r» Ct.9$ (fr- 

Nightt, Fo I 



'^yabfe fo Virgin Ganrws LKW^lecai-v u. 

lion you r»quiw. tjCOj 
|ll. Chuck te Igg, Tir Ma 
TTRUM, 

lidhight, BriCmBI 



Sfcm Vir9»n Gom** 



AMSTRAD, 



Couldton, VYoiia ^ u f, . 

iliMp, Pyjamar^ma, Afctbion 



Nom* 



Virgin ;;KJJr«i* Ud, /i4 vemon rafO, Hmiqdoijc i 



iLorKJonl 



CHEA T MODE 



Jcick thd Nipper 

We've got bolh disk ar.d lape 
pdkestoi the Gretnliti gama. th« 
disk Version coining Iiom our 
own RpM and the tape on6 from 
Phi] Dohcity of Luton. Typo in 
th6 djsk poke aiid gave it to a 
separate disk - not the game 
disk. Once saved you Juat n«a4 
lo run ii and fojjow the on- 
screen irLStmctions. Th& Upe 
poke jK eTi tared using Method L 
PIcjsc note thai the disk 
poke actually write! to your 
gaitie disJc and alteis ir, bo en- 
sure the wnte-piotect tah ia off 
oi the poke won't work, There 
13 a check m the piogiam that 
shouM stop any bxtotv in the 
da,ta gening through, but you 
should bfi vary c%re^ whon 
typincr it in 



Disk version 

IJ ' 

II ' ne Vrite Pfotect 

Ifust If Of^ 

31 ' DtlfFiJie He pQbts Ci 

mo! I# EniirH 

90 mn i'MMsi i:m 1.1:1 
^ FOR t=i]isf TO iim-.fm 

U !F IJ012I4? Mi PRIKT'ER 

mi m tm*:mf 

n PRilT'Irtsert IftCIf THE JTIP 

^1^ ^is: iflts drive A lad pr 

ess 1 le]r«..* 

Iff CALL ytf3:CAlL fclEfi 

IJIPRIHT'InliBJU 1ms It^ 

Ifl '■ 

Sa zl=I«tEY*:IF i^" THEN 

m 

141 IF 3«=*T' TffN PCXE UW 
4,kC3:MlCE Ui4Cfl;50TC 291 
151 IF rt='IC THEH POKE HI4 
i,iCZ:POKE III4C,K1:S0T0 31 
I 

m LQCJtTE u\mm m%\i\ 

171 lUTO IZf 

m PnNT'Prm It i(«7 Hl»n R 

eady To Pla)^ daw...* 

191 CALL bElf3:CAlL Utf6:!C 

PF 

3MMIfc21,n,If,CB,l4,K,2 

2,9d. 11,11, ?9,1I»CI1,M,BC,?2 

,9fc,li 

21f DATA U,n,l\,%\%,ll^% 

,IA,3D 

720 DATA lJ,S7,IF,9£,lfffI«C 

Lll,l,2,lf,C,7?,32,93,lf,lS 

.E4,3E 

23f BITfi 11,33,?3,1I,3A,8M 

f,3C,32,8D,lf,Cl,ll,D2,3£,C3 

l,77,23,a£,M,77,i3,3£pii,7? 



?Sf MTU Zl,9t,lf,CS,fi,R,3 

A,n,lf,4F,CS,E5,IE,lfj3AfaF 

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l&lllTASF,9A,ll,fl,Cl,Il,f 

f,l2,i?,JC,79,32,91,l«,li,E4 

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27«MTA 32,91, H,3A,8F, 11,3 

C,32tSF,lf,Cl.li,G2,C9,f£,ll 

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7@« DATA 11, fl,l J, »r,84,ff,J 

1.17,35, ff,H,f7,fl,ll,W,fJ 

m?tn H«53,i:P0J(E tll5?, 
f:{ALL tllli;6OT0 m 
m PDKE L 1053, lEA; POKE fclfS 
7,UF;CAIL fcllfi:60T0 IM 





Tape version 


\%mi 1 


?i nmtt 41959 


3f lATA 17^,Sf,!l,32,A2,«,H 


J?,32^i95,l,16 


4f FOR i=4B64l TO 4S651 


Sf READ I 


a POKE i, J 


71 mj 


eiL0A0'<nipp5r-,4ff6l 


$1 POKE 4ll4r,19| 


IMCALl 41961 d"7 



Monty on the Run 

Phil Howard again, folks, witli a 
Method \ poke for Gremlax's 
platfoim/cyplarAliO'rt g^me. 
This one gives you a whole 
buntdi of lives &guiv - what 
ntore could you want? 



H PftTA 21,W,9c,3*,b7,d,l? 

,82,Zl,£b,42 

21 BATH 3£,c3, 23, 34,17,23, 3A 

,f3,Zl,40,if 

3f DATA eS,21,B?,l3,t5,c3,4l 

,42re5,21,3i 

41 DATA H,3i,K,il,fI,f3,c9 

5FF0R 3£=12E9 TO 1311 

hi ^m as 

78 PQK8 t,VALCI*+a$) 

?|t€XT 

?« ^5RT t2Ji0 

IH LOlD'icnt? on tN Ml" 

ill CALl I2F1 




The Apprentice 

This poke for the Mastertrome 
game cornea from Nicholas 
Paris of Rugby and gives you 
infinite lives. It's entered using 
Method £ to skip the first five 
blocks riflitied THE 

APPSENTICE. 



2M LOCATE H,12:PltIKT *pliis 

I Halt...* 







31 FOA ■«! TO H 


40 REAl It 


50 POKE IJIilu,UAl(*l*4»t] 


if NEH 


71 CK.L IJHf 


30 POKE mas, 1 


90 phe mvL.t 


Iff CALL I(?E7A 


UfmiTA 21, bif 12, 11, 4^,92,3 


12f DATA Ed,iI,bc,d2,flrlftC 



Sdi Combat 

Dan Rodgers of London has 
some tips for the contbai game 
that he says should allow you to 
carry on endlessly. 

For white- to black-belt 
opponenis you should advance 
two paces fofwftrd and hold a 
chest kicit. Wheal iJic opponent 
IS near enough, chest-kick ro- 
pcatedly, never allowing your 
foot ia touch the floor, That 
sliould do 'thmti all in. 



Southern Belie 

Andif<?w Dug of Tim ha£ som^ 
tips oji the HewBon ateam- 
locomotive gani<^ thai should 
help you stay on time. 

Firstly ss an overall tip it's 
bein to use accelerated time 
during each journey, as this 
mak'ES the wrholc jomnQy trom 
VictOTia to Brighton last 12 to 15 
mtnutes instead of an hour . 

Starting oH is easy, pressing 
C four tLEnos to put the cut-ofl 
fun on and .wlnstliB.g, then putt< 
ing ihe regulator ttalf on (pi«3s- 
ing a twice) After a few sec- 
onds you wdl pull out of the 
station. Wlien your speed is 
higher than 4 you should press 
R twice *gain to put the regu- 
lator full on. 

Once a spood ol around 
30-^0 is achieved yoa c-an ease 
down on the cut-oBf. pressmg 
Control-C rw^ce to put jl at half. 
When going downhiU very fast 
put ihd T^^ulatDr on half and the 
«it-0(r <Hl lis lowest position but 
not iM: return to previous sett- 
ings for norroil travel. When, 
clinibing giadiente the regu- 
lator should bo fuU on and the 
cut-off about half or tnore. 



Slowatg d&wn k best done 
with light or itisdium braking, 
but putting on the blower and 

dosing the raguLaitcT will also 
slow you down quite fast. Before 
entermg a tunnel put the ^slower 
on and whistle a second or tivo 
before entering the tunneL 

Try to conserve aa much 
coal and water as possible 
throughout the Toumey, 
although it isn't easy. As a gen- 
lerai rule having ^o coal and 

water at Z or alsove at Clayton 
tunnel should seo yoQ through 
(0 the ^nd. 

If you are going very fast 
(ever 70) at QayTon Ot PitTChajn 
ninnels it is bast tO use !ight or 
medium braking, ready for 
going slowly into Brighton, If 
you 1-Jt the buffers at Brighton at 
a higin speed you will ctash, 
Yoi3 must stop within ^ feet of 
liiq end of the platform - this ig 
tough and you'll need practice 
to achieve it. 

Remember to observe the 
speed limits and to use ths 
blower and whistto for the 
tunnels. 



► 



AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 101 



CHEAT MODE 



Fait the bkiok b«U and al 
Dan belts yoH ahculd some result 
iwice into iJwj nuddle of fhc 
screen and then repeat! Ui« rout- 
ine with the chest kick. When 
the thiowing £iars coirte Aloti^ 
the gr-ouitd, use a flying kick to 
avoid ihem. ^a you will often 
tnj;ure your opponent as well. 
When the stars come at head 
height, duck. 

Get Dexter 

Andrew Mansell of Shaipthorne 
his a tip for the PSS/Ere game. If 
you press the Delete key it wi)i 
pause the game, 

Tobruk 

Michel Peier RemJoo from Brigh,- 
lon has a method foi wiruung or 
ihe PSS war gamE;, It hardJy tests 
your strategic and lacttcal sktils 
but it works. 

1 Move atl urkits with a suc- 
movemeiit aJlawance ^nd sur- 
round Bir Hachjeuti. 
3. ^^ove supplies to within six 
spaces of units, 

3, Keep attacking Bir Hachaim 
\mib. all units. 

4, Every jnove, try lo move 
supplies around a bit so (hey 
vifon't get hit by an entsmy air 
strike. 

5 , On command phase lUe all ?0 
poittta on ait attacks. 

6, When it comes to the air 
attsidbc always bontb Tobruk. 

7, Afler bombing Tobruk three 
tunes it will surrender. 



Stainless Sted 

We gave you tha cheat meOiod 
on tho Mikro-Gen 3hoo!-era-up 
Ittst month and now we've go! 
pl^yin^ ttp« Troin Neil Brewn of 

Lisbufft and Keith Weiler of 
Ra^leigh, Incidentality, the choat 
rtieihod has becoiitie slightly 
clearer than holding down the 
top IWO rows of the keyboard - 
try juat pressing the keys 
MIKROGEN siiTtuitaiteoiisly. 

Zone 0; The hBlicoptars 
need to be hit (wicc,so make it 
count. If hit only once they fly all 
over the plac€ making them dif- 
ficult to hit. To shoot them jii^t 
pofiirion yaorseU facing acroea 
the road as they approach on 
(he scanner. When they are 
nearly on the scroen, fire a cont- 
inuous line of buUels across the 
screen and you should gel the 
necessary two hits. Always use 
the scanner before venturing up 
the loft side of a row of cars, 

When dealing with ihe 
met^l eyes, try to gel ihem just 
showing at the top of the screen 
where they won't normally fire 
on you .Don't forget that to enter 
the car at the end of the zone 
you have to touch the right side 
of it. 

Zene It You have to wsidb 
yont fuel carefully here since 
the desert section ha:) to be 
negotiated quite slowly. Stay 
around at the start for a while 
picking oJf the miestJes, and 
keep careful watch, en youT 



scaitnoi to Be« when a missile 
may toe coming up behind you. 
Wh«n yOtl reflch the first barrier 
don't forget to ehoot the square 
droid because you have to de- 
stroy all of the enemy to com- 
plete the zone. 

You can ineak by on the 
right side of the first barrier and 
over the starfish on the right of 
thcs second bairici. Don't forgot 
you've got to »hoot everything 
and can't get past the wsiB at the 
end of the jsone. 

Zone 2: Bomb Cho subs tinti) 
the p]sns3 ^iiive and then pick 
them Off. Try to pick just one 
aub to keep bombing so you o«n 
hit i1 accurately. When you 
come across fuel leave it untti 
you really nd^d it because 
you'Uiteedalot, 

Zona 3: It's mudu like Zone 
so just progress through il in 
the same way. 




FouHK Protocol 

jSariy North of Littlehampton has 
eome up ^ith Bome excoUent 
tips: for the hrst part of this game 
of mcriguo and doception that 
sihould enable you to complete 
It, 

On Jutte 8 you leoeive a 
incmo asking you to install 
security system* in the CO Paja 
Analyst buildmg. to which you 
must reply yas. The bajsemeitf 



r] 



FREDERICK 
FORSYTH 

THE FOURTH 

PROTOCOL 




THE GAME 



nuisl be locked in the followutg 
w*y: both computer-room 
doors, the office at«J tho data 
storage area. On the ground 
floor you need to lock the main 
entrance doors, the dcjut and 
key rooiTtv the ol&ce. the secur- 
ity door and the meeting room, 
tf you carry th^t out correctly 
yon'il gel anothei^ fueniQ later 
on which requires yOu to doctdo 
on the order of Importance of 
the following: 

L Computer audits by system 
analy&tit. 

2, Special password changed 
weekly. 

3, Special keys to secure araas. 

4, Photie calls ihrough hurtisn 

OpfllTBtQT^, 

Their correct order o! im- 
portance is 2431, which ahould 
slop hackers ge:iing into the 
Byatetr- 

Cencom contains tho file 
Telephone which lists three 
numisers: BlenhoJrrt computer 
a438a?31, medical security 
71338880, and £ir Anliiony 
Plumb ia377a«3. The last mim- 
ber should be used when the 
player kJiovvs all the details 
about the traitor and his contact- 
Don' I dial it if you aren't sure 
becauiie you wM lose valuable 
prestige points. 
Medical gjecurity can be 



■ ■ f 

caUod only after Bracton has 
called you, Bracton seems ob- 
sesjied v/ith catling you so read 
hJS file along with Tliom'*. ; 
Blenheim's computer can be 
called at any time; by giving the 
decoded paftsword you^re 
given at the start you can tx^ctvf- 
fer files to Ceneom, where ihey 
can be examined. 

Amon^ the fUes yov, can get 
from Blenihelm are: Nato. papei 
I. paper 2, paper S, paper 4, 
paper S, MoD. Cabinet, f'oio- 
ign. Abba, Sismsiav, pizza, 
Maras, Pasternak, Faulkner, 
Bracton^ l?hom, Blod^vyn, trad, 
names, delivery, Uilaon, 
Omparde, Shouku and Fox. By 
analf^ifi of the filed papers 1-6, 
MoD, Cabinet and Foreign you 
can narrow the traitor down io 
one of five men who had access 
to all thfe documents and a 
pholooopter. 

Generally the more 
watchers yon have on a target 
the faster you get the results. 
Always uifwer the phone 
quickly because some of the 
caQs are vety important. Kev^t 
have waichcTs on targets that 
have already been dealt with as 
It losses prestige points. Some 
targets such us. Warbiirton and 
Banister require the full E5 
watcheia to get resiiKs, 



ne 



sXO 




Nexor 

JuBUn Cole from Colehestei Hm 
a Method 1 poke that gives in- 
finite lives on Design Design's 
3D ar^^ade adventure. 



NK 1,26; IKK 2, IS: INK 3,19 
21 a^ltFia 

3B »EA9 bIMF b«-'eAJ' THEM 

liaslb^ALI'lt'milPOKEi 

,b:i=itl;t^t+b:S(no 31 

41 IF iiWm THEN PSIHT'Err 

or in dita'IEIII 

51 CALL IBFie 

m UU 3f,H,i:i,6b,bc,ll,0I 

i>l 

70 ma »,H,ctf,77,bc,Zi,ff 

11 
Bff mk £d,83,bE:,cd,7i,bt:,f3 

ZI 
90IATAIf,cF,U,ff,U,ci,?Z 

,n 

111 MTAIl,i4, 32,2^39, cM 
1,21 

Lzi un «id 



>^.' 



Roland goes 
Cciterwaylir\g 

Do you remember back in the 
April -,ssue we printed a spoof 
hi -score sent in by a reader 
from Denmark? WqU, surpnae 
surprise, jamos Anderson from 
Glasgow has sent in a poke for 
this non-existent game. Just type 
It m and run it - you won't need 
to rewind the non-ex:stcni gome 
tape or skip any im^giiutry 
h£ader1eef files. 



il ROBE J 


20 UU cd,14,bc,3«|53,d,54 


jbb 


30 MTA 3e,55,cd,5d,bh 


40 UU 3«,43,cd,5d,bb 


50 1ATA 3e,4b,c4,Sd,bb 


SI lATA af,4S,td,M,bb 


J9 JATA 3e,52,cd,Sd,bh 



102 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBEE 1986 



CHEAT MODE 




flP^Ti^^r 




in FC^ i=Um TO MflilMl 
lI^flEAB at: POKE a, ML (%Ni 


m NEXT 

13S C/U.L t4l0e 


t^ 



Batman 

Neil MacDougaU from Girtstol 
answeis thd piayi^js Qf alt 
c^ped ccufisdeis wiih ih« disk 
-vneision. Just typc^ in the listing 
and gave il onio the game disk. 
Wow whenev^i you vmm uvfiniie 
live* just Tun ihe Usungf and it 
will fllllon^>ltgca]ly load Lhe gauxe 
With tnUm'je lives. 



mi tnm i.^niK i,mm 

3 2i& 

31 FOR x=ISFH TO tBFZSJEAS 
illPOK i,HLI'l('Hl):IEXT 
41 C4LL 1.IF0I 

WBATA lt,l?Jl,4i,H,n,4^ 
J HI 

itIATA c<,»,bc,2i,27,bf,n 
,11 

,lf 

20 lATA fi,csI,$3,bc,U,7«,bc 

9|]ArUf,k,34,ff,c3,iMl 
IK DATA £dF2{,73,6Z|«d|ll,l 



Star strike II 

Tips lot the Reallime game 
coine from P joll^ys of Wigan, 
who lakes you through h Btag^ 
by frtage. 

Whon you asATt the game 
you arc shown a chart of the 
sysiems. If you're a boguui«i 
Uion go for the &eta fl^yslem, 
^^fh^ch is relatively aasy. Once 
you've chosen a flyfltem, ihe 
map of ua pknets appeals, 
TiiGSG art? split into ihreg types: 
Agricultural - ThssG have poor 
defences and are the cafiosl of 
tha ihreg. The etages ^s ^aoc 
gates, fighters, pisnetajry desc- 
ent and control roam. 
IndaitilAl - The&e are slightly 
harder, croitsiBting of space 
gates, liglitors, vcnltlalion duct 
and conErol room. 
Milii^Tf - These are the har- 
dest of tho three, They are 
made up of the space wheel, 
$pa(;e g^ies, fighti^r?, planetary 
dAJc^^tit, V0ntildlion duel and 
control room. 

Note that sometimas an 
alarm will SQund nnd ti load of 
coloured rectangles will head 
for yon. Tney can't be ahot so 
you have to dodge them, but 
foituiiately they don't take much 
off your shield, 

Spscs wAe^l: Appears on 
the screen and moves clock- 
wise- Rotate ihe ship anti- 
clockwise and blast the pOdS Off 
the whgel edg€. A door opens: 
centre 6ie cross-hsjirs on it and 
press D, Rotate the ship against 
tlie spin of the wheel until the 
door is horizontal and then keep 
it the;€. Once inside bla&t th« 
£ghter and t«ro of thd triangl'SS 
on the far wall. The Ihiid 
triangle stop& the iris from mov- 



December chaffenges 

This month's challenge J should 

keep the mappers happy, so get 

cracking, 

1. A pokfi iiUowing you to use 

chests more than onot? in Druid. 

t. A poke giving invulnerability 

on Ijgiitforce. 

3. Anvapof Ffosr-Byte, 

4. A rnsp of Piadiqy. 

5. A map and playing guide to 
Iconjoji ^ 



ImJ 




ing ?o shoot it when the iiis is 
fully open and fly out 

, JTefetic^ shields: Thera ate 
jieTBrAl different g^ites you have 
to negotiate- Each one lio^ a 
diamond-shapied gap containing 
squares and triangles. The 
triangles gan be shot but the 
scmarea cannot. To pass through 
saf^ely, hfi-*<3 for the middle 
square firing at any misalign that 
come from the guns- The mid- 
dle square is set back from tho 
Qilnfirfi; wJiexi the others disap- 
pcaz from view yoU Oftn tyrii to 
the side very quickly to avoid 
the Unal square. 

Orbits! insertion: To be on 
the safe side transfer AH irtuch 
fuel to the shiuid as possiblo, 

Fightei3: It's beat to turn 
your eRgines off to conserve 
hiel and kcM^p on iha windows 
(press II), fighters have to ho, 
shot three times before (hey ex- 
plode and icvcal the fuel pod- 
To get the pod ju£j keep it in 
sight and thrust hard loward-'s i 



beat you. Scavengers nocd only 
One shot to destroy them. The 
number o! (jghtcrs depends on 
tho strength of the planet. 

Ground attack: This is the 
easy bit. AU you have to do here 
is avoid the movuig rectangles, 
missiles ar^d vcrtif^l laaeia and 
blast away at every tl«ng else. 
Go at full speed to savq fual. 

Ventiiatiop duct: Stay at half 
speed and just try lo dodge 
everything. B(j particularly car- 
eful with the iriaeu. 

Gontrol rooms: Each planet 
has either a reactor or a bRttle 
compptGFr Just shoot it and fly 
out of the door that operis. 
Otherwise you return to the 
ground attack or ventilation 
duel o( that planet. 

The easiest system Is B@la, 
then Alpha and Delta, Do 
Ep^ilon last: (his is (he toughest. 
When refuelling in the module, 
fill up only your energy bar or 
you'll never ba able to complete 
the game. 







,il'MMii:illal 



^' If- 



I 








Winners 

That arch-poker Phtl Howud 
has grabbed the big prise this 
month with pokQS on Tiurust, 
Alien Highway, and Monty OJi 
file Rsui, A much-deserved re- 
ward for consistent high quality 
and quanbty over many mottths. 
The runnei3-up are; Dave 
Howton and Rlehaid Ntclidl- 

soa, who md^pendeniity ^ni 
Thrust playing guides, P }tt\- 
leys for the Starstnks U playing 
guide. }a3n<>s Moloney for the 
DoamdATk rcAp. and Nicholas 
PavlB lor his Appr9i\tic» poke 
and mnp 



AMSTRAD 



ON DECEMBER 1936 103 



Try beating oik AMDRUM ! 



^^X^. 






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tf m- 



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r 



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and ^^' 
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Marking 






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RICHNICHOLSON 



DAVE NEW) ON 



L«we! rt*re# 









Uv*k ont 




Cfllfict rile Fl*1 and 



Weir wp pfld Affd 
co-utitdown starts 



Lsir*l ti*f* 





moll* la w »ii- 









ti* »lirefe to 
bvlJ*t, 



CoKvtf Fu«l^n4 

po^jfiPiiiFioFf 

fWfelflr on >^dy otft 



V#y»t *9ur 



Shoot flvm and 
9^P li»il*9 ihi*td 



Gftnerof tips 

Ccti-nt the rmrtiber of shots 1( 
destroy q f^neJof shoot H 

rwo oMhfee tim*s leis than 
fhot on the way^ down 

Keep the sound turntd up so 
'hot you can lell If youV* 
hitting CI rtottor with your 
hviieH when JFj ofUnreeti 

»n Fevers* g^avily.olwoyi 
let the pod pr«(ede y^i, 
Ihfough turtnel* 

Collect oil fvs\ and destroy 
Ol'guni oothedescen* 



U** shifid whsfi*ve, 
i'eiesnding into an area 
wher*guns gre oe^ive 

FrequeritMseof,^,g^(„-.ljjj^ 
esiflniiol for Ihe^ invfiibJe 
sections 

Immet WastefsOfiaF>d 
Simon O Connen hava. on 
eJicelleniiipf^pf shEpping 
Jtirough UveJ*. Jyj, Kjj|j 
dowf, the 2 S. i and up- 

and piets £i cope, y^ntwjjj 
Jhp yov Forward oiti fey^f 

"With o rrisiion-compieFe 
bonus. 




!ti» iwat^^t 



p»o*to^ Mvvmi 




Thfutt tionf to 

ovoid dlddros nl 






S*flbtlifa pod 

i>#flMt|l| dOd' 

apcnir 



-- *»Cy out 



'^1 dump 






I HRUST 

A IIMP£TGUN ^ WAU SLIDER 

FUEL C£U (and wmlMfl ^ POWER PLANT 



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virtucjHy ANY piec« of &oftw<rr« for th» Amstrad 
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y IFAT discounts 



KUMG FU/NUMUR 1 

Two Hrent ocedn gsmei on one tape, 
^ gsvan away with Vm Chns^nnaJ "85 
i?iii« of 4^, U you muMd i1 Ihon, you 
couJjd gal it now. 

TUtCOVtMAMr DEMO* 

A full version of t^w AA-RawhA PSS 

giHTte <Hi tape. I4>gi!llt0t' Wilh dhifrtAl 

«f iouf &ther PSS tilleB, asd uuliuc- 
lions Sor iransifBTtinq fJie CcH'*rtW!f 
lo didc. A£ reaiuffid ai^ ih« cover d 
our Hay iwue. 

CASSirrf OMtv 

Maibatl "s Hutiutty Rtm 
Everyone 'e a WsISy 
AmeiicAii FiMtbail 
Electro Freddy 
HvntST KiShr 
Ltserwarp 



Sf3iat 

Cisssic Aavsn tare 

Wriggler 

Pyjamarssna 

Spannerman 
HuiicJilMck 
KfAsI^r Chess 

Rol<m<l goes Digging 

Meifig^ from Andrnmida 

SMtxHawk 

Wwter C^m^s 

Doomidiiy Biuvs 

CtftOfucteT 

Big Lc<igu»SoccmT 

Ai^x ItggiBM World Pooi 

M^rsport 

Alton Htgtiway 

Sw^evo^s W6iki 

TLL 

Hsgl\ way Erceunmr 

B/iliTian 



iiSsm WRIGGLER 







VOUCHER 



Fgi uii >vttl1»nJ»<l1i*n|l.M- 



r 
1 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
1 
I 
I 

X 





VOUCHER 



r«r HttwHh iiihn linn EtO.H- 

jinii. Ml uwclltr nnr alin) 



VOUCHER 






i 
I 
I 
I 



VOUCHER 



Ni wtwuhii'iiiiauif £B(ILdD 

(■•t, «rH viHiClHr r*l'«^| 



HOT STUFF 



FREE! 



HOW ORDERS ARE DEALT 
WITH 

Amatrad Action Mail Order t« ran 
hcjc in Sorr:«Ttr>it by the super- 
#ffiirl»iit sue TAVliOR, rhe woitihil 
wkio gft» more laail in A <iAf than 
movi peopl« get each f*tai 

progtairvR whl^h our sup-pUcis 
cajinat gal hold fy[ (or smne re- 
lie«ii. Sue deipktch«* al] p'^clcagttk 
br Hftfi ciAii maJ wiUiln Twe av 
thiee Mctkin^ imyn of HceLving 
the o^dei-a. Therefoie^ yen c&n 
aomnally expcei t<> T4c«ive yo^or 

If i1'» litvlAved bfytind H^*t 

vrlUcli hftan't y«l been lolessctl it 
is tQmpcHiily imAVftUliJ}li|> tn 
vrfaieh <»ii« « pbQD« q«U from yim 
WON*! ipead thift^* ap, (In f^ct 
the revet »ft - ph*nr «flll» *rc very 
t)mV'Con»iiining,)< If * long 4l«lkV 
wier« I11c#ly H«'d ttl yoa Nn«w. 



PLEASE BEAR IN MtND 

1. Th^ fhct tluit a prognm i* re- 
vl^Wi^d ia the inag^uin* dn«i nal 

KErORE it ttaa ncnaftlty be«ii 

2. We «* Kiippy to jvlimi ypm 
ordar 41 any lirqie up ta the d«- 
•palcH cl the gODfiii. Bnl b«caafre ot 
Htm pe«&LbI1Uy of copying lofl- 
WBTFj mo rchind »if f xcKkngc lo «Ii 
aSl»Tnativ« ^ee* vt iottwiTB dsb 
b« giTcn aA*r th«y h«vr boi^n de- 
«IMtc)i«A. ferriTwe Miucb dpei noi 
lead may be Tetaniad for a le^ 
pl«cepn«nl cati*t(« or dt»c ccn- 
iaining tke ak.m* t^^twaia ciifaei 1v 

HI Air dltpctli/ ta 111* loftwar* 
h4nfc CDno*m«d' 

3. Wb try to be Jia accQiatB bi up* 
ckn with d«tatlt 4f price, comjMtl- 
biUty 4n4 dilk «T4lUlaUity, feot 
cknnat acrcpi liability ior any 
*n«)f« lb*! «:)r«»j^ In, 



with any order over £5 

A CIS data cessette containins 
high-quality tape specially desig- 
ned for cOftTputer users, It Comes 
in a library case with blank inlay 
card. 



FREE! 



with any order over £15 

your pick of any one of the samcs 
featured in the Super-gifts box, 
Most would normally cost £8-10! 



FREE! 

with any order over £30 

A bisrik 3" disk OR your pick of 
any TWO of the games featured In 
the Super-gifts box. 





OVERSEAS READERS WELCOME 

Acadeis in rh« Rvpnbttc oj 
inELAMD can 0]rd«t iny oJf i.h««« 
h^ohIq at the s»nt* rat«« tLt- British 
cead«r* j»r4Tldod thai paym^n.! Jn 
VAadt in pauAdi SK'TlibSf" ^^ y" 
wish to pAy in iTinh ponnac yan 
inuiE Mdd a [ft,3-!ii{) Kuicfadrg^ IN 
AUDITION to ^l«Min{| lot- tlic 
current o»«|t4Jqy» late - thal't 
yrltMi it CDStE us tfl pay In your 
oherquci or poiital ordcxs, 

HE^d«r« #]i0wlL»ro In 

EVBOPE must add El per s^flvrai* 
it^fn 14 lh« foit aT theit ordar. 
Ptymant jitaftt be in pO'U.nde 
St*^lLnf> 



Sendthisiofrritslj^Davtnent i^- AAMallOTd*r.l9PlnewoeO Drlve,Somerton.Samfifsc1,TAl1 6JP 




MAIL ORDER FORM 



Name....... ,.,,..,. ..,.,„„„,..,.„.... .,Teiaphoner^O, (if pOS 

Address........ „. „.„„ 


S) 










,-,,,-..,..,.... „, , ,,..,„„.. Post code , 




fwlachine owned: DCPC4G4 CCPC664 U CPC6123 

Enlvth* pfa.BF*mf you with <«erd*rh Ih* «p«e*t bslcw, tJr4«- 'PRICE' yw tiuiI *r\i.v lh( lull f (lilt pfl«*, f jam want unvf* thM) IW* Umi, 

you th«u Id Elit tlitm on 1 1 iparsl* pint irf paper. 




SOFTWARETITLE SOFTWARE HOUSE DISC/CASS PRICE 




1 


- 






2 








3 

:4 














PR&DtSCOl 


JNTTOTAL 





TklC er-* o! til* fci' lowing aisecrd'irg to ymr miE-tKSCdilMTTOTJt'L. 

! I U^erES n CS-9.99 lendoE(]a5QpdiSCOUri;vOuch«r< □ £10-14,9S, 1 enclose a £1 discount voucher, 
._! C^S-i9.S9.lonotij3«a£l voudnerantfdaima ffMOin. lZ P20- ■20.99 J snciase a E2 voucher aind Claim a freeQiri, 

tMJ0.09,lenctesoa£2voucherandc!aim twogifte [jOvisfESO, Iefic5o*&3£5vouchwandcla'm iwo titts 
TOTALPAYABLE FOR MAlt ORDER (-PRE-OtSCOUNTTOTAL mirus diaoojril^; 



Ifn ««M* itwn iMa bt A* o>nw irsu alraadv liftw, ind tirtli |h* ana* yEM ttfuM prntaAMly lll« a* your tr** ^Mlfi, 

OveM E^ • C*Hf<( Afl»»rrlift - TfHiy^wi ■ PfiaptaAfO. ' £*win«HiMi < H^icrtott- M#»ur CJ»»S ■ floiaij Softs ni'55'"'0 ' M*8fflfcJi ' ^>ict h>»* 



Save £71 

ADVANCED MUSIC SYSTEM 

ThlB disk could lie yours for Juiit £22.95 
Ot tf you iMven^t got a disk diive... 

Save £3.50! 

MUSIC SYSTEM 

Oa cassette at just tl2AB 

th« original Mt/sfc System caused qyite o tlir 
wKerv Peto Connor reviewed ir in our Morch \a\x9, 
describing if of '« superbly executed packo^e ,„ viWh o 
thorough ond vary cfeor monuar. Since then it hot 
become the standard agoinst which all mu^ic pack- 
ages hove been fudged, ond largely found wanting. 
The Advanced Music System extends the facilites £tfll 
further, and 'the main section <.. tooks every btt o« 
good now oi it did six months ago*. 

The package h very easy to use, with pep^down 
menus and windows. You can emote three separate 
voices dl a time. As you ptoy, the tune op peers m full 
mustcol notation on the screen. The Advanced version 
includes a printout module for printing six voices of 
'mu$ic on proper slaves on paper, ond a linker module 
thai allows larger pieces to be pfoyed. 

We are oFfering you The Advanced Music Sy&/&m 
on disk for £7 less than yov will find it in the shops, 
and if you haven't got o disk drive then we ore 
knocking £3.50 off the cheaper MvsJc Sysfem on 
cassette. IF you are planning: to buy a disk drive soon, 
then you can still benefit os Rainbird will upgrade you 
to Advcffcedfrn £1 4. 

Whatever youVe got, this is the best way to get 
into music and save money at the same timel 



SPECIAI 



Half Price! ■ 

Special offer for readers ta 

ISSUE 4-- 

' cassette 

Only 75p if you order any o 

The 1 1 epage Christmas issue of 
Amstrad Ac fion, with Kung fu and 
Number On& from Ocean on a coyer 
cassette, retailed for £1 ,S0 and as 
a back issue normally costs £1 .85. 
You can have a copy antd halve the 
original price if you take up any of 
this month's Special Offers. 

The cassette Is arguably the 
best gift aver sluck to a magazine 
cover, and up to the standard you 

Save chaos! 

MAGAZINE bin; 

Only £3.95 

You askud for «hem and now you've goi These T 

them. No more piles o( AnTStriad Acliorm as the ma 

clulteiing up your living room Mipet and 'Amstiad , 

getting, sob, battered to pieces m the pio- Nevwap C 

cess. Instead a superb, cusiom-buiK bindiit n\agazines . 

spdci^Uy deaitfuod lo t.-ike 12 copies of AA etotied bohi 
and preserve them m pristine condition for Loyal i 

pio&perirv' v^nd easy future referenecj. your bindei ; 



SPECIAL OFFER FORM 



Ftl! in your r\Bme, addraBS and machine typa on the revej'se of this form, 

yoifwieh to order- 



LDniid 

D £5.95 on Cassette 
2.Adv, Music System 
D £22.95 on Disc 

3. Music System 

D £12.45 on Cassette 

4. Trio 

□ £7,95 on Cassette 

□ £12.95 on disk 

5. Light force 

□ Cass £6.95 

□ Disc £11 .95 

6. Power play 

□ Just £6.95 on Cassette 



7. Magazine binders 
D£3,95 

8. Subscription 

D 12 months £16.50 

(U K rates Ofily - write for quotaHion 
tor Qv^K^eas rales] 

9. Back issues 
At£1,35:^No.3^No.S 

□ No.SQNo.lonNo.ll 

□ NoiaDNolSQNo.U 
At£1.85:DNo.4nNo,8 

(TbMaal £1,9S indud* ««»v»f meunted 
eSSSSM OOntdiiUng sifuytj g,amBaur:n±'u) 

□ Issue 4 lor 75p! 



Then placo a Ifch naxt to lho»e items 

10. Grand clearance sate 

□ Elite cass £6.95 
D Elite disc £9.95 

□ B a! man cass £4.95 

□ Batman disc £6.95 

□ NewWord disc £29.95 

□ Str*loop+ disc £6,95 
QSorcery+ disc £6,95 

□ Raid disc E5.95 

□ Cyrus Chess disc £6.95 

□ Dambusters cas& £4,95 

□ Bounty Bob cass £1 .95 

□ DGadline disc £9.95 

□ s&astalk0rdisc£S.95 

□ WSBballcass£3.95 

□ YAK'ngFu cass £3.95 



TOTAL NUMBER OF tTEMS TICKED | "| 
TOTAL AMOUNT PAYABLE ON SPECIAL OFFERS 



I endose a ctieqiie or postal ardor fcf this am out, plus tho tot*'^ payable for mait order on ihe reverse of this 
farm. The payment is made out to FUTURE PUBLISHING LTD. 



Save £2! 

TRIO 

Sam Goes Sho; 

Table Test 
Computer Snap! 

Yours for just £7.95 

If youVe been looking for sq 
lo get Arnold educating your 
try Trio, three programs aifn 
making learning fun for kids. 1 
w© first saw this soflware w 
so ifTpressed thai we helped 
authors lind a suitable pubflr 
and now we can bf ing it to yc 
this special price. 

Tfio is the first foray iff 
educational s«as by Piranha 




advantage of these pages: 



item from these two pagesL 

sd p^i^ pounds for over the 
iler, Kung Fu has s^jperb 
lation and 3 two-playor optbn; 
ihefOiieis an addiclive rdterball 
te with super-fast 3D graphics. 

AtkJ the issue itself isn't bad 
EOT. with our usual reviews and 
vs, a look inside the doors of 
jan» and plenty^ of maps and 
ne-pokes. SuperiD value at £1 .50, i 
i it could be yours for 75p!! 



Mastergame! Save £2! 



ii^nTTi 



Only E5.95 on cassettel 
Here it is, tine great AA maslBrgame 
winich notched up a 93% rating. Featuring 
superb colour grapfiics with smoof fi^ 
mulli-dJrectional scroKing, Firebird's 
program pits you against a host of evil 
creatures. You have three different types 
of weapon to blast mem off the screen. 

Combine all that with a large 
playing area and a feature whereby a 
second player can simultaneously take 
part in the game, anct you have the 
ingredients of a winr^er. It's an absolute 
bargain at it$ luil mtail price of £7.95. 
Knock off two pounds and you cani 
refuse. 



ERS 



; Jook every bit us. good 
ifutd JTtciudc the n*me 
emlKJSsed in blocked 

1 titc- spine. Individual 

eld in place by bemg 

of 12 wire? 

3, don'l delay. Request 



SUBSCRlBfl 

Enstue that you gst the next 13 
copies o! AmatTAd Action with 
Ihe minimum at (usa. £13.50 will 
make sure that every issue 
materialises on your doormat 
without you having to iitl a fin- 
ger. 




AA Rave! Save £2! 

UGHTFORCE 

Onfy £6,95 cassette, £11.95 disk 
This game is Faster Than Light, A really 
classy shoot-em-up with beautiful 
graphics. 

You have loads of alien spedes to 
blast and four different zones to play, 
with both ground and air targets to 
destroy. But above all the game's 
addictive. How long can keep your finger 
olf the button?! 



cassette, or £12.95 on disk 

e "smalt but tethal' software team 
within Mac mill an, which is one of 
Britain's naosl respected rtanies in 
the world of books. 

m The three programs in !he set 

are Sam Goes Sh(^ng (a challenge 
to even adult memories), Tsbl&$ 
Testanti Computer Snt^l {w\lh no 
cards for parents to have to clear 
up afterwards). It is gr«at fun for 
kids of ail ages! 



PLEASE NOTE 

TTloa* QJtera are ^eipaj^l^ frMn Ihw 

r*B at OUT inail-order schwno, Ywi 
CATLfLOt uAi thio TouciieTi ai\ lh# tnMil- 
OTder p«ge :o obiMm tar^f dJ*' 
cnuin And timm g^ta: - we'iw«liwidy 
Intockod off iha suw: ws c4aT HOvr- 
«ver. tt fflti pttlmt, ytms my ordof 
«ny el tlw iwini on Qus pA^« 21 ihm 
HOMUl FUU. tTHlCE rhfough iho 
OTdlnarf mail-ordtfr sehetne i>n iht 
prariouc p*q: You can ttiAh usa Oto 

Qth^ 90i94« it ^ Mm* te^fl 



Stock clearance! 

AIMAZING 
BARGAINS 

Great so Ft ware at under half price! 

Oar AlsdCiin 's Cave of software treASures 
has become TAther full of late, atjd vf-e've 
decidad fo have i? clu-arcmt. 

So here 's a aniqui! appoitunity to pick 
up some superb sofnvare at aUly piiecs. 
Iiike half price or Isss. Check out the titles 
Imlow and if yo» wAitt f<> order, move fast, 
because we only h<iv& timii^ supplies at 
these prices. 

ELITE 

Firebird's spac« mftge-ganie. Oniy £6,95 on 
cass^tie or £9-^5 on disc! 

BATMAN 

The superb 3D aicade-;idv^titiire from 

Ocesr. Only £4,95 on cassette or £e,9S cm 
disc! 

NEWWORD 

The power-packed WordStar-^ompstihls 
wordpiocessor from NewStar. This version 
ie for tlie CPC 6128, Only £2&e3 on disc 
reduced from £69! 

STRANGELOOP PiLfS 

Bemonding, funuristic aclion in a huge, 
bxisue robot factory. Only £S.95 on disc! 

SORCERY PLUS 

Widely acknowledged as one of THE great 
Amsirad games ~ ju$t i£.B^ on di^! 

RAID 

The contiovefsial shoot-em-up against the 
RusElane. just £3,95 on djs<;! 

CYRUS II CHESS 

Powerful chess program with a gorgeous 
3D display. Only £G,9S on disci 

DAMBUSTERS 

Famous flight-simulation action from the 
second world war, Just£4.9S on cassette! 

BOUNTY BOB STRIKES BACK 

OriL' of the wfotld's most addictive pJatforro 
gantes. Now only £1.95 on cassette! 

DEADLINE 

A sujjerb disc text adveriture from bifocom- 
This IS the 6128 vetsion. Jusf £&-85 to cleart 

SEASTALKER 

Anoihec liifocom great - a perfect introduc- 
tion to adven luring for 6130 owners. Disc 
onty £9.95 to clear! 

WORLD SERIES BASEBALL 

Ttic tanious sporis simulation From tmagine. 
Only £3.D5 on cassette. 

YIE-AR KUNG FU 

ltii.agii«G's luj.iiiou^cotrdtat g<){tii;. Now only 
£3.D5onca3gctli;! 



THE ALL-IN-ONE ACTION FORM 

This form has been created by the Save-Your-AA-From-Being-Overhacked-Department 
You cai> use it to register your votes for Games and Serious Software, or to send in your 

Type-ins, without losing any news or reviews. 



GAME CHART VOTING FORM 



PLEASE NOTE 

\6v hiva a TOTAL ot 10 votes for eaoh chart t^altbcate 
bfitween up to live progfAma - sg. you can gi^e all 10 lo 

one pragramorapll1thiemsav^4*^<tZtT«ti( 



/ would like to vote for the following gar 
GAME 

1. 


SOFTWARE HOUSE 


VOTE ALLOCATION 


2. 






3. 






4. 






5. 







SERIOUS SOFTWARE V 

1 would like to vote for the following pac 
PROGRAM 

1. 


OTING FORM 

:kages: 

SOFTWARE HOUSE 


VOTE ALLOCATION 


2. 






3. 






4. 






5. 






i 




« 




You can help us out at AA, and give your type-ins a far better charice of being ptfbtished, by filfing 
out this form and wrapping it around your cassette wSth a rubber band, it would also be an idea if 
you ^end it in a jiffy bag a& an awful lot of cassettes arrive here damaged. 

Name ,,,,,, ,, ,>, 

Address , 



Postcode. 



TITLE™ „...„... 

DESCRIPTIOI^: 



*Pi V'ii'vinHi*fr»itilili*»IP»«ipi r#*»4'^« 



} hereby declare that the program on th^ attached tape is a// my own work, and that it has not been 
sent io sr)y other publication, nor been published in any form, or submitfed to a software house 
hr txsnsideration a$ part of a commen^iai padi&ge. 



Signed. 



.Date. 




WHAT! 



SURELY YOU'RE NOT STILL WAITING 
^ FOR THAT GAME TO LOAD ? 



ISN'T IT ABOUT TIME YOU BOUGHT YOUR 

SOFTWARE FROM AMBYTE, THE ONLY COMPANY 

WHICH CAN SELL YOU GAMES SOFTWARE ON DISC 

AT CASSETTE PRICES 



^ HERE'S HOW IT WORKS^ 



From 1h« litl below you pick 1h« games you wani, and w« put Ihem on disc - «asy fin'l i1? Wveill th«rn cufttom 

compilations. The AdvsnLages are clmai; you benefit Ircm 1h« (oadmg ap^cd diac game* offer, 1,0 you gel more out of 

your ■ottware, but you don"l pay any mom than if you were buying the game* on upe. Not ortly that, many of the gtmea 

we offef wouldn't be available on ditc * where ets* could you buy a Maslertronic geme lor El .99, on dtK!, kf tt lan'1 *rom 

AMBYTE. 



ACTIVt&lON 



ACOO' 
AC0C2 
AC003 
ACOC-<t 
AC0O5 
ACOM 



Ghoslftuslerj. 
Mir>dshm<Jo* 
Master & th« l nmps 
HtKua on Fradailus 
Hwdwr 



9&9' 
9.»9' 

g.sa' 

999" 



Barry McGuiQiiri Boxing S.99' 



ALLIGATA 



ALO0 1 Who QafBfl W*is 2 



S95 



1.99 
1» 
199 
199 
199 
1 99 
1 99 
1 99 

1 9& 
2.99 

2 99 

Z.99 



MASTERTnCmiC 



MAOOt Fndtrs KfteipeTS 

MA002 CNIar 

MAOO13 N>Oflt#^ra'qU0US 

MAOM looemoiior) 

MA005 SoyI at a Robot 

MAOOe Foftrtufa One Simu^aior 

MAOO? OfK Maf* and His Drotd 

MAOOa Cav«fi Dt C3oom 

MA009 (nro Oblivion 

MAOIQ Sp«n Bound 

MA011 TfMLaElVS 

MA012 K»n« 

MA0 13 Radicw 

h/|A014 Flw « Skj« Fooibsli 



MIKflO-GfcN 



MKOOl B4TII6 &1 :h^ Ptawts 9 9S 

MK0O2 ThiBH Wb9J(£ tn Pafaaise 9.9& 

MK003 HartHflB'tOumniy Run 9.9S 

MKOlJd EqjMox 9 as 



US GOLO 



iiSOQi BeiachheBd 2 9.95' 

US0D2 1rnpos«ibl« Mission 9.5S' 

USOoa Wim^Garnss 9.95 

USO04 R«lurnlDOf 9.93' 

U$OC@ Bnjce Lo« fii.9S 

US006 Goonie^ S.fS* 

US007 ZoiTO flSS' 

USCOa Sunlight S.S5' 

US009 OambMiiitr* 0.95 

US010 Kifnp Fu 9.95 

USOli BojCiljiHob 9 95 

US012 DtMri Fox 955 




g*i=M'''.ir:i.^rvj?i^ 

GRD01 I hin^ on A Sfxiog 

GR002 way Oi ThB TiQar 

GR003 Sufrtf Sisiiih 

GROM BOLfr^^r 

GR006 Monly oniha Run 

KUOOt SiapAwCfiflef 

KU002 Galawd 

KU003 RoiiiRflid 

KuaOS Cavftms of MafS 

KO007 At^o Mavis 

KlTDOfi Rewgadd 

KU009 B'jtter B'oi* 



9.9S 
a.95' 

S.9S 

e,9S' 

5.95 

G.S5 

6.9S 
SJS 
fi9S 



ELrri 1 




ess 


PALACE 


PA>31 Ciiuiiron 
PA002 Cauldmni ir 


3 93 

8.99 


FIRE&IHD 1 



FKOi Raspuiin 7 9& 

FlOaS Ron#ston* ?.9S 

FIQ04 Co£!a Csptn 7.95 

FIC06 C'thnara 7.fiS 

Fi006 Thui>dertait{^ 3,9£ 

F«507 Willow Pattarfl 3.9S 

FIOiM Don! Panic 3.95 

FIOM Subsunk 1.99 

FI!?tO ShQitsFuze 1.99 

FIOII Tha CoTtat Gams 7.95 

FI012 Ntnjatlasrir 1.99 

FI013 Collapse 1.99 

FIOM Melichopp4f 1.99 

FIO15 Thrust ffl9 

FlOlS Seabaa* Delta 199 

FlOf 7 The WiW Syoch 1.99 

FK)19 Sr^rFrebirds 1 99 

Fh)19 Haivay H«a(^an0er '.99 

FIOJO Salksy HarcskJ '.39 



PSWl TNeaif* Europe 5.95 

PS002 Hanle Iw Midway 9.95 

PS003 0atii« CJf Brram 9.95 

PSOC'4 SwofOsandSwOftry 9.95 



IMPORTAN 



VOU (VW Y ORDE R AS MAN Y GAME S AS YOU LIKE so LON G AS THE 

COMBINED VALUE OF FWOOf THEM EJCCeEDStiS VOUCANMOT, 

FOR eXAf^PLE. ORDEH SEVEN MASTERTROfJIC TITLES UNLiSSVOU 

Al SO OROFR TWO NORRML PRICED GAMES 



CRL 


Cf*H)l Endiifftoca 


79s 


GftOOZ Ju^oernoul 


7.95 


CRiOOS Fwmuia 1 


795 


CRO<04 Blade Runoer 


695 


1 MAflTECH J 



BFIITANNIA SOFTWAnE 



BmXH Play YoiJf Caniji FU^ 7.95 



CC0O£ 
CC0&3. 



Afnri*fin 



ELECTBlCDflEAMS 



MTI>01 2«d4 - Tha 5a'.l\t Bag-m B.95 

MT002 Brian Jad^s S^jpenlai' a.95 

MTCHJ3 Geoff Capes Si nong Man fl.K 

MTtKH Sam Fox Slrp Pofcer S 96 

MT005 WAR B g*' 



EOOOl 
E0002 



Wimsr SpodS 
Spindi2^ 



MIHHOHSOFT 



MS001 
MS0&2 



DynsTiire Dan 
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995 
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9.B8 ' 

S.9S 
9.95 



ORDERING (CPC 6128/664 S ^64 machirtes oniy) 

OONT FORGET VOU MUST SPEND AT LEAST t1 5 ON TWO GAMES. 
PieAsn donrtov'deF amy games marlcedvnth a star |*) unless you have 
l^>eplX}nedu& ion ghe rurnberbeioii^) lofnake^ure Ihey are available. 
Thes9 games ware nol available ai tfie lime of ouf gdng I0 {X€ss tut 
shourtd b« when >tm r^art this - hutdon'i take a chance- phone us. 
ori>erwiiM yourofder mighi gsT delayed 

YQ!ijcaniord?fasmar!ygamesaByoulike.uSoasepafatepic;teo1pa(>&rif 
you prefer , Out don'l torgel any of I he dealails ar^etl for by l^'e fDm. 

Phone 0277 229684 



Code Number 



Title 




Total Order Value 



Price 



Name. 



Customer Code (il you heve 
one pifliastt uia It, il saves time) 



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Address. 



.Fob I Cede. 



Cheques 3rd po&tai flfde« should bemade payable to AMBYTE- All 
orders Should be pasted to AMBYTE^ 200 North Service Rd, 
Bfeiilwood. Essex. CM14 4SG 




UNIT14,WHITE HILL HOUSE, 6 UNION STREET, LUTON, BE0SLU1 3AN 

THE UTILITY PEOPLE TEL ^0502) 4ii6as 



FOR YOUR AMSTRAD 464/664/61 23 



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ADVERTISERS' INDEX 


ea 


A.G.F 


39 


MARTECH 


AMBYTE 


113 


MIKROGEN 


105 


AM5 


20 


MIRAGE 


3d 


ARIOLASOFT 


32,44 


MIRRORSOFT 


37 


ARNOR 


18 


NMC 


51,86 


BESTBYTE 


21 


OCEAN 


17,52 


BEYOND 

CASCADE 

CHEETAH 

DOMARK 

ELECTRIC 
DREAMS 


65,1 BC 
99 

46,104 
9 

49,60,77 


PR)DEUTtLmES114 
RAM 10-11 
SCHOOL 43 
SHEKHANA 114 
SIREN 43 


EVESHAM 




SOFTEK 


4 


MICROS 


51 


SOFT INSIGHT 


39 


GARGOYLE 


12 


SUPASOFT 


21 


GREMUN 


92-93 


UBfSOFT 


30-31 


IMAGENE 
INCENTIVE 


IFC,40,50 
OBC 

21,39,43 


US GOLD 78-79 
21,«.S7 

VIRGIN 100 


INFOGRAMES SO 







114 AMSTEAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 




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iifODROID IS AVA{iA8LBr^ 
iLERS. IN CASE OFOf 
}ND SOFTWARE FfRSTl 
LOND( 



lGOoo software 

\S£ WRtTE 7D 
4EW OXFORD ST. 




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, .. you haven't al. 
n vouYe i| |fa|r a fed/ surprise 
oins Mag Max to loaaWBraP^ur micro. 

' "1 Max could be a mean machine if you Ve got what?liWi^ to put 
- f him t03ether. Build him up and his fire-power increases - 
you'll need it! - believe it! '^ '^■ 




ManctTesterM25WS Tel: 



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